


In Perfect Harmony

by Royswordsman (RoySwordsman)



Category: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Cybernetics, M/M, Mind Control, earths mightiest heroes, warnings of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 05:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 27,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4047307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoySwordsman/pseuds/Royswordsman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers have to unite to take down a series of threats that pop up over the city, with their worst enemies appearing around the city at the same time. There is clearly someone pulling the strings and it’s only when Tony’s radio is cut from the rest that Steve goes to investigate. He finds something terribly wrong with his friend which impacts his life forever, when he tries to save him Steve too gets caught in The Purple Man’s web of evil and is seriously injured.</p><p>Now awake after the incident it’s Tony’s turn to save Steve and provide him with a second chance, helping him and forming a bond through their new augmentations that makes them closer than ever. Together they need to find the rest of the team and assemble them to defeat The Purple Man. </p><p>Inspired by the wonderful art produced by <a href="claustrofobiart.tumblr.com">claustrofobiart!</a> <a href="http://claustrofobiart.tumblr.com/post/121630687143/i-had-to-post-these-days-ago-but-problems"> Link to amazing artwork </a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Earths Mightiest Heroes inspired fic for the Cap-Im RBB 2015, a huge thank you to Clau for their absolutely amazing work and dedication as well as their input and ideas while writing it and a massive thank you to my beta [ ladyshadowdrake ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyshadowdrake/pseuds/ladyshadowdrake) who gave me such great feedback.

Darkened loomed thickly over the Avengers mansion ominously, heavy with rain but only allowing spits to sprinkle over the city. It was that time where day was merging into night, not that anyone could really tell given how the clouds had masked the rays of the setting sun, quilting the above and plunging the city into a premature evening. The lights in the city were turned on, and yet it seemed so void of life. For New York City to have its inhabitants scurry toward shelter was a rather spectacle, and it left the streets bare, with only one or two civilians running underneath their umbrellas to seek warmth and somewhere dry.

 Thunder echoed from far off, and as it did everyone in the Avengers mansion turned to Thor.

“Nay, tis not I…” He replied in a softer tone than usual, still strong but not yet reaching its booming peak.

They were all in Tony’s upper lab. The billionaire was so work-orientated that he had two labs; the lower lab where his suits were laid to rest, and the upper lab where he would work in eyesight of the other Avengers and their living space, a less technical area, a leisure lab one could say, where he quite welcomed the social antics of his team, whilsthis own lower lab was his sanctuary where he would rather not be disturbed. Few had access to the lower lab, given how protective he was over his suits and other top secret projects, and yet the exception to that security check was Captain America – who had a full access pass everywhere throughout the mansion. Who was Tony to deny their leader the VIP treatment? Though most would pin it on Tony Stark’s undeniable soft spot for Captain America, rather than methodical circumstance granting him access.

“Surely you control the weather,” Clint said, sharp blue eyes focused outside as he stood by the window, being the only Avenger standing asides from Tony. He couldn’t help it. The outdoors just looked like a scene from an upcoming apocalyptic movie, something straight out of one of the Avengers movie nights that Jan insisted on having as team bonding.

“Mostly, my friend. However, this is not natural.” Thor gestured outside, even though the tinted windows it was clear to see that the grey that the clouds wasn’t natural, but it was tinged with a purple lining which became more visible from their superior vantage point within the mansion.

“What do you think is behind this, Tony?” Steve asked, looking up. Tony stood in the centre of the round table, where a hole had been cut for him to access his screens. Holographic monitors surrounded him and he tapped from one to the other, blue orbs darting back and forth quickly, lit by the cyan screens.

“There are various blips turning up on the radar, let’s just say this isn’t going to be a walk in the park,” he replied, arms hovering over the screens, glad that he was just in his black under-suit, appreciating the freedom that it gave him to shift attention between monitors.

Steve rubbed his cleanly shaven chin, biting the inside of his lip with a pensive furrow if his brow. “You got any details?”

Jan sighed deeply once she took in the concentrated look on Tony’s face, knowing that it was never a good sign of what was to come. Tony was a man who would laugh and joke, so the moment that he was serious, she knew that there was a real threat to deal with. “It looks like a storm’s brewing outside, either that or Galactus is on his way again…”

Hank shot her a glare. “Don’t say that, we just finished dealing with him. I would much rather go without the huge amount of damage he had done to the city…” Besides, Hank wasn’t too keen on working side by side with Reed all the time. Whilst he did appreciate his genius from time to time, he knew being around him for prolonged periods of time would be infuriating. As much as he admired his dedication to the cause, the gist of it was that Reed could be rather oblivious and would often forget that there were others in the lab alongside him, attempting to help.

Janet glared straight back at Hank. “I’m ready to take him on again. If he shows up he shows up, we’ll deal with it as a team.”

“Janet’s right,” Clint replied. “I wasn’t too keen on this team thing to start with, but heck, if we can deal with Galactus once I’m sure we can deal with him a second time… Together.”

The rest of them were in agreement, and even though Bruce sat there with his arms folded and head down, he agreed. Much like Clint, he wasn’t too keen on working in a team; in fact, he thought it was best if he stayed away from humanity as a whole, given the unpredictable nature of his condition, but spending more time with the Avengers had allowed him to learn more about himself, to have that support that he hadn’t had in so many years, to have a family. As distant as he may have appeared, Bruce had grown surprisingly attached to his team of Avengers.

Vision floated by, hovering just behind Tony to take in the data as the man was. “It appears that the multiple threats detected are spreading in allocated sectors within the city.”

“Why New York? Why not Hawaii, I mean… I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone, but I would much rather go to Hawaii…” Clint groaned.

Natasha shook her head at the inappropriate suggestion, attention caught by one of the screens in front of Tony. She noticed a figure, and even though her perspective was inverted from where she stood, she could still make out the silhouette.

“It can’t be…”

“What’s the matter?” Carol asked.

“That’s…” _Alexei_.  She couldn’t believe her eyes. She hadn’t encountered the Red Guardian in years, and the last she had heard he was actually on the side of good, or rather – deemed himself an antihero.

“The Red Guardian,” Tony finished off her sentence. “Something you’ve dealt with before?”

Steve turned his head to look at Natasha; he knew from personal experience with the Guardian that he wasn’t an easy fight. Russia’s equivalent to Captain America was never easy, but they had history, a history that Steve didn’t know all that well. That being said, he knew little of Natasha’s past given her need to keep it largely a secret.

Her heart began to race, but her collected appearance gave nothing away. He had once been in a close relationship with her, and with everything they had been through she knew this was a personal battle. “I’ll deal with him.”

“I’ll come with you,” Steve added readily.

“No Cap, there’s something else you might want to look at. It’s our old pal… Tony Masters, AKA, Taskmaster.”

Tapping the oak table with frustration, Steve glanced forward, peering at the inverted image of Taskmaster and his giant shield running amok in down town Brooklyn, which was no surprise. Steve knew they both shared that turf as their home-ground. The familiar buildings around him were prompts of his heritage, even in modern day, some had changed and others hadn’t. Still, he didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and was spurred on by his attachment to that particular area.

“I’m totally going to help you take him down, even if it is over your turf. He’s down in Brooklyn…” Tony said. “I’ve still got a little score to settle with him.” Taskmaster once worked under Sunset, Tony’s vicious ex-girlfriend. That and Tony would never turn down the chance to work alongside Cap. Seeing him fight was like watching a professional ballet; he was so co-ordinated and always fought with so much poise and grace. Not to mention he looked pretty darn good in those tight blue pants of his that were obviously one size too small, but Tony wasn’t going to complain not when it was so easy on the eyes.  

“There are more to deal with.” Vision gestured to the other red dots, tapping one of them to enlarge the image.

Tony’s sudden smirk of confidence began to fade as there were more blips on the radar, more red dots. “The Destroyer, Major Talbot, Black Swan, Whirlwind, Absorbing man, a hoard of Doombots… Why are all of these people coming together? Why now? This seems so… co-ordinated…”

“Sounds to me like it definitely is,” Steve replied firmly.

“So what, you’re saying that these supervillains that don’t know each other are just banding together and fighting? This is hardly the Cabal, these are just random villains,” Carol stated, her gloved hand just over her chin, eyes narrowed with a deep perplexed look that seemed to be the resonating theme throughout the rest of the Avengers in the room.

“Seems like a patch up job, you’re right. It’s too random, there has to be someone behind all of this…” That’s when Tony spotted something that made his expression fall even further, but he didn’t look mad, he had a look of disgust creeping over his lips. His eyebrow twitched in fury.

“What is it?” Steve asked, noticing the sudden silence.

“Hammer. He’s involved too. Justin Hammer…” Tony growled, accompanying the remark with a patented teenage sulk.

All of the others stared at one another and shrugged. The serious atmosphere dissipated for a  mere second as Tony glanced up and blinked, realising that none of them had really had a head on encounter with Hammer. This was personal, and no one really knew how much it meant to Tony. There was something about Hammer that irked him in a particular way. It made his blood boil to see a crooked man wondering around and trying to compete with him on such an amateur level.  He said amateur mainly because Hammer often didn’t fully understand the extent to which his projects devastated those around him. Plus, he reminded Tony of a friend of his from high school in the way he would always try and compete with him; Tiberus Stone. But that was another long story for another day.

“I’ll handle it,” he mumbled. “We’ll just have to stick with a divided force, divide and conquer, like the Romans.”

“That worked out well for them.” Bruce replied, lowering the visor of his cap.

Tony side-eyed him with a shake of his head before going from screen to screen again, tapping it and trying to refocus his attention, as difficult as it was tearing it away from the forthcoming battle with Hammer. “Here’s what we’re going to do; T’challa you’ll take on Black Swan, Thor you take on the Destroyer, Natasha you’ll take the Red Guardian, Carol you’ll be taking on Absorbing Man – who by the way, is a pain so watch out – Clint you’ll be with Crossfire, Vision you get a Doombot, Bruce you get your buddy, Major Talbot, and Steve you’ll have Taskmaster. I’ll, of course, be with Hammer. As I speak co-ordinates are being sent to your Avengers tablets. You’ll be able to track down your target there. I don’t like splitting you all up, but I’m sure we can handle ourselves. If they were closer, then maybe we could tackle them one on one, but like I said, I’ve got a score to settle with Hammer.” 

The team stood, respectfully, all seemingly eager to take down their assigned target. But there was a quietness about them, an uncertain shift about their movements that indicated that there was something making them uneasy, but none of them could quite place what exactly was making them so unsure. Carol turned to Steve, as did T’Challa, as though he were to confirm Tony’s orders.

Steve stood, taking his place by Tony’s side. “You heard him team, we’ll take them down one by one. If you see someone is done, you move on to help your nearest partner. Try and call help too, I’m sure we could get a whole force going if need be, but I don’t want to unnecessarily call for help. Keep in communication, use the radio as much as you can.”

“Yeah, you heard Cap, let’s do this team. Assemble!”

The team stopped and turned to face Tony properly, all with yet another deadpan look.

“Too much?” Tony asked.

“Verily…” Thor replied, using his usual booming tone as partially hushed with seriousness as it was, spinning his hammer a few times before using it to smash through the window, latching onto the handle and soaring out, with Carol and Vision flying after him.

Tony gasped with a look of pure dismay, running up to the window and gesturing to it. “I have a door! Look, door, over there!” He pointed frantically. “Why would you—there’s a door!” He called out after them, even though they wouldn’t hear him.

Clint snorted loudly, stepping out with his hand gesturing for Bruce to follow him out so that they could leave together. T’Challa merely shrugged at Tony before stepping out himself only after muttering, “I’ll help evacuate the city too.” To which everyone agreed was a good idea whilst going their separate ways.

Steve followed Tony, grabbing his shield from the table and slotting it into the magnetic harness on his back. “You ready, Tony? I’m going to ask you for a lift… Since well….”

“Don’t talk about how half of our team just flew out of the window because I’m already thinking how much it’s going to cost to repair. I may be a billionaire, but come on.”

Steve smiled faintly in return. “It’ll be fine. Let’s get going. Splitting up the team was a wise choice, we’ll get more done this way, there’ll be far less damage done.”

“I hope, at least.” Tony said, just before the loud clash of thunder was heard overhead, right above the mansion. He jumped, teeth clenched tightly as the ringing echoed through his ears like a bell that had just been struck, that was until the Captain’s hand reached over and firmly grasped over his shoulder, giving Tony that reassuring squeeze that he so desperately needed.

“Let’s do this. Drop me off just by Taskmaster, I’ll meet you when I’m done and help you with Hammer if you’re not done before me.”

“Thanks Cap…”

“For what?”

“Pep talks. They’re always useful, as long winded as they are.” Though Tony realised it was hardly a pep talk, it was that reassuring lock of eyes, that deep stare that echoed that Steve had the utmost faith in him. 

“Any time, Tony.” Steve smiled briefly, his hand brushing by the back of his head. Perhaps the Captain was more self-conscious than he had thought, clearing his throat afterwards in subtle embarrassment.  

“Come on, let’s go,” Tony said, stepping back from Steve’s grip as his armour slid up his body from his boots, along the lines of the under-suit and locking into place mechanically. He wrapped his arm around Steve’s surprisingly small waist and carried him out, his jets catching the air as he began to glide, ascending into the skies with his repulsor jets keeping Steve tucked tightly, only to deposit him by his target.

Taskmaster was going to take a hell of a beating.


	2. Chapter 2

The storm above was relentless, pounding drops on the ground like large needles, panging and dispersing with each strike. Even as Captain America knelt down, the rain bombarded him, it’s droplets think and frequent. It obscured his vision, but nothing was preventing him from pummelling his opponent. Taskmaster wasn’t the easiest of opponents, by far, especially with his ability to mimic Cap’s every move.

Cap’sboot shifted in a circular motion, leg entirely following the motion as the skull masked mercenary surged forward. Steve caught the tip of his dirtied white boot with his leg, causing him to topple over. Their movements by this point were slow, lagged by fatigue, each motion more sluggish than the next. The heaviness of their clothing in the rain didn’t help; soaked garb making each move weigh like a tonne of bricks were tied to their limbs.

Taskmaster’s already fragmented mask took the brunt of the fall, clashing with the pavement beneath him and completely shattering the right side.

Gradually, Steve pushed himself to his feet. “What’s the matter with you, Masters? You’ve not been as chatty as you usually are… No taunts? No ‘aim of Hawkeye’ or ‘just like Cap, but better’ quips?”

There was a groggy moan from the man now covered in splatters of water and blood ruining the brilliant white that Taskmaster would usually sport.

It was unusual, and Steve had noticed that right off the bat when they had first started fighting in and amongst the streets of his home town, that Taskmaster seemed quiet. Even when Steve had offered him a better pay off, which under usual circumstances would be an easy way to fend Taskmaster off. He had known the mercenary for years, he had even had to work alongside him, but this fight seemed entirely different. Taskmaster’s moves were strangely predictable, his banter was completely absent and he seemed to throw himself toward Steve as though he were a drone.

The rain continued to pelt down, the sinless drops of angels tears coating the damaged surroundings.

Steve’s eagle eyes remained focused on the hooded man, even as he fumbled his way to his feet. He almost slipped in a puddle, reaching for the edge of the curb to push himself up whilst his arrow and quiver remained a good meter away from him. With the mask broken, Steve was able to catch a better glimpse of Masters. Those petrifying eyes that were visible only in the shadow of skull sockets were now on display, lit by the flickering street lamp above.

It was hard to get a proper view of him, but there was a strange tint to Taskmaster’s eye colour. His iris seemed outlined with purple, which did indeed pull at Steve’s need to investigate, but he couldn’t tell at this point whether it was just his vision failing him. After all, the skies above seemed to be painted with the same purple; the grey of the clouds appeared more violet, some with outlines of indigo. It was difficult to draw conclusions, but Steve had a resounding sense of déjà vu ring through him, but he didn’t have time to linger. Just as he was buried in a moment of thought Taskmaster ran at him with a full fist, which Steve quite easily sidestepped before knocking him down, giving him the last blow; striking an elbow to the back of the head to send himto the ground like a fallen dummy.

Steve brushed the rain away from his face, but rogue strands of hair had still managed to find their way under his cowl, without a choice he lifted it and pushed it back. His usual perfectly parted golden mop was now in disarray; a mess the second that the cowl was lifted. At least he could push his hair back, slicking it into a neat wet coif with only one or two strays adamantly poking out. He tapped the comm device that was lodged comfortably by the corner of his ear, an edge pinned around the shell that lit up when someone was trying to communicate with him. He tapped it once only to receive static in return, the white noise making him flinch. The static took a moment to clear before he heard the hazy, frantic buzz of Tony’s voice.

“C-cap…”

“Tony?” His gloved finger pressed closer to the device by his ear. “Tony, can you hear me?”

“I- I need you…”

“Tony?”

The signal was abruptly cut, fading back into static.

He could feel his heart in his throat, he knew something wasn’t quite right with Taskmaster, but he had to leave it and help his friend. He grabbed Masters by the hood, roughly, and pulled his body over to the nearest lamp post, reaching into his own utility belt to pull out a few rope ties.

If Taskmaster was tied up, Steve could get to him later. Steve pulled at the tight wire-lined ropes and wrapped a loop around Taskmaster a few times, then around the lamp post, before making one of the tightest knots he could muster around the back of the street light.

“I’ll be back for you,” he growled to Taskmaster before setting off.

He ran as fast as he could, boots slamming against the pavement and through puddles, kicking up water as he ran to where Tony said he would be based, which wasn’t too far. The rain descended in spikes of silver, obscuring Steve’s vision as he thrust the entirety of power he had into his legs.

He tapped the comm, holding his hand to his ear as he darted down the street and began to climb the rusty fire escape ladder of a nearby apartment complex and climbed the rusty fire escape ladder of a nearby apartment complex to the roof. Each step echoed loudly, creaking under his weight as light footed as he was at that moment. “Anyone? Team?”

“A little busy Cap!” Carol replied.

“What she said,” Hawkeye followed.

A heavy sigh escaped Steve’s raindrop stained lips. “I’m on my way to find Stark, he’s in trouble.”

“Get ‘em Cap, Hank and I are helping Bruce right about now,” Janet replied.

“Got it. Over.”

Steve cut the signal as he heaved his weight up along the edge of the rooftop to scout the area. There was nothing out of the ordinary that he could spot from that vantage point asides from the factory not too far away that had smoke piping out of its chimneys. Steve knew that factory – he had seen it numerous times in the past, but it had never been lit. It had always been vacant.  An abandoned place for the kids to run to and play in. Truth be told, Steve had never been inside himself, but he had passed by frequently.  

He took that as his cue to commence running. With fewer obstacles, he managed to leap from rooftop to rooftop. Steve kept up with his tremendous momentum as he jumped between gaps with precise accuracy, landing just on the edge of each rooftop before pushing against the gusts of wind that came his way and jumping to the next spot. Each leap and each bound brought him closer to ~~~~the factory.

Steve jumped off a rooftop, grabbing onto a suspended flag pole and swinging his body around it a few times before using the momentum to throw himself onto the steel bridge that was just past the tall rusted iron black gates surrounding the factory. Steve almost slipped when his foot finally hit the bridge after the leap of faith, the metal covered in slick raindrops made him skid, forcing his body to tilt back and grab the handle of the bridge – which again, was slippery. It took a couple more movements before he managed to stop slipping around, being far more tentative with each proceeding step. He was grateful that Tony insisted that his boots have something much more effective than snow grips, even in this weather, and Jan, of course, added a very fashionable twist to Steve’s traditional red boots, giving them a retro-feel flare.

His footsteps became more careful, the shift of water beneath his feet making it significantly more difficult to be quiet as he stepped further and further into the factory. The large doors seemed to be the only way in, asides from a few broken windows that were far too small for his large, muscular frame. The main doors it was.

_So much for subtlety._

He had hoped that the large clunking sounds from the machinery at work inside would drown him out, but hopes were all he had at that point. He was sure Tony was nearby, he could sense it.

The loud doors creaked just as loud as the staircase that he was on earlier did, the rusted hinges squeaking before letting out a low judder. Steve was prepared for something to come at him as he stared through the crack. It was so dark he could barely see a thing – a purple hue lit the room and doused its surroundings in the same colour. It went against the orange rust that the factory was originally painted in, the dirty colour that was all along the outside of the building until artistic graffiti had been plastered over some of the sides, bringing a strange life to the factory.

The ticking of the cogs resounded throughout the entire old, rickety building, heavy machinery slamming down on their respective parts, churning and producing, hot steam releases piping throughout the air and whistling as they pressed and released.

Steve could feel a drop of rain from his wet hair slide down his temple as he crouched down by the entrance, continuing to maintain some sort of stealth whilst he carried on searching for Tony. He was sure that the man was at least headed to the factory, so he had hoped that the conflict hadn’t taken him too far away.

He ran between gaps in the machines, keeping his back pressed to the solid iron plates behind him, peering just around the corner when he had managed to catch a flash of bright red and gold coming right at him.


	3. Chapter 3

THWUMP-!

A powerful smack to the jaw sent Steve to the ground by the machine right away. His hand went for his jaw immediately to cup it as he stared up at the armoured man that was stood before him, standing in all of his glory, tall an mighty; Iron Man. Steve’s widened azures focused on the armoured hero as he placed his palm on the dusty floor beneath him, just about ready to push himself up again.

 “Tony..?!”

The words ‘confusion’ and ‘shock’ didn’t quite describe what Steve was feeling at that moment.

Tony palm faced forward, but Steve couldn’t quite get a glimpse of his other arm, it appeared hidden, the way that Tony was standing. But he did notice something by his feet – drops of blood were starting to trickle from Tony’s hidden arm, pooling on the floor.

“Tony…” His voice lowered. “What happened?”

Tony didn’t reply, then moved, the purple light giving Steve a better view of the damage; Tony’s entire arm was missing, his left arm was severed from the shoulder down with only segments of his shoulder armour left hanging from it.

Steve was utterly panic stricken. He wanted to leap up and help until Tony uttered a few words in a monotonous voice.

“Hey Cap… I’ve been waiting for you…” he powered up his repulsor blast, which was pointed directly at Steve, the brightness forcing Steve’s eyes to narrow. Instead of getting up, he was forced to roll to the side to avoid the blast that was aimed right toward him.  He was unmasked, eyes a bright purple – just like Taskmaster.

It was then it clicked.

It wasn’t the first time that the Purple Man had managed to use Tony as his puppet. “Iron Man, Tony, you can fight this!” Steve yelled, just as he had done during their last battle with the Purple Man. Steve reached around for his shield, grabbing it from the magnetic strapping on his back and quickly ducking behind it, using it to bide himself some time to get to his feet.

“S-steve…” Tony muttered through clenched teeth. Steve could see it on his face, the way that he tried to fight, the miniscule trembles in his face whenever he moved. It was just a case of freeing Tony again just like he had done before. Steve had faith in him.

But he wondered if there was something more to this… The Purple Man wouldn’t exactly go for a repeat, he wasn’t that stupid. There must have been something more, especially since Taskmaster was under his control. He tried to touch on his communication device whilst he ducked back, trying to use another nearby machine for cover from Tony.

“Team?” The signal was still filled with static. “Team, your opponents, they’re probably under the influence of the Purple Man, I don’t know why, or how— “

There was a fuzzy growl at the other side,

“We’re helping T’challa— Cap, Cap?”

Half of the words were swallowed by the static, the other half were inaudible. Steve did all he could to relay the message but he wasn’t sure what exactly he was dealing with, or why the puppeteer decided to control those villains, but it did occur to him that one of the villains they were dealing with wasn’t exactly subject to influence; a Doombot. Robots couldn’t fall under the powers of the master of persuasion.

Steve couldn’t talk anyway, not when he was too busy trying to run from Tony, who came zooming in from around the corner relentlessly firing his repulsors. He had no choice but to fight him, his eyes performing an ever so quick sweep of the room first before dashing to one side and ensuring that his shield was in front of him, covering him as a powerful cyan beam was shot his way. Steve was playing a game of duck and dodge since he knew for a fact Tony would snap out of it inevitably.

He turned his head and spotted two shadows standing by the highest point of the factory, on a balcony that was obviously made to be overlooking the production line. One was clearly the Purple Man, dressed in his usual sharp looking suit with his hands resting behind his back, but Steve couldn’t tell who the other person was; an even leaner frame than the Purple Man, hair gelled back, glasses – then he remembered what Tony had said about someone named ‘Hammer’ before, knowing that it was probably him.

The blasts shot by, one skimmed his cheek and another braised his uniform. Steve wasn’t running away from Tony as it appeared, he was running toward the puppeteers and trying to lure Tony there with him. Steve used the same skill he had done earlier; grabbing one of the nearby bars and using it to raise his body and climb over one of the functioning machines. The vibrations under his feet were constant, especially with the production line churning out what he could only guess were robot shells. Tony was relentless and not far behind; it took a matter of moments for him to power up the thrusters in his boots and leap up to reach for Steve’s leg with his one good arm, but the Captain was a slippery man to catch. He jumped up toward a hanging bar from one of the machines on the second floor and used it to pull himself up, but Tony managed to grab Steve’s leg and dragged him back down.

“Oh, he wants to see us, I’m pretty sure he wants to see us.” Hammer’s cocky voice echoed from the other side of the factory. “Come on Tony, my pet, bring him to us.”

“My pet you mean…” The Purple Man irritatingly corrected his partner in crime.

“Yeah, yeah…” Hammer fanned his hand at the man. “A deals a deal, come on Tony!”

Iron Man did as instructed, pulling Steve into his into his one good arm in a surprisingly firm grip, feeling him squirm and wriggle around trying to free himself but the tight shards of metal jutting into him constricted his every move. At least this would save him time; Steve was definitely not down and out for the count.

Tony dropped Steve down in front of the two. Steve’s clean uniform was smeared with the blood from Tony’s missing arm having brushed against it while in his grip.

Hammer was definitely as greasy looking as Tony had described him. He wore a white suit that looked almost grey, short slicked back brown hair, glasses, and hada skeletal looking face with a huge nose. He looked like a man who had been thirsty for attention his entire life, that or he was trying too hard and vastly overcompensating. His glasses were thick white frames, gleaming under the light and hiding his dark coloured eyes that Steve occasionally caught a glance of when the glare on the lenses shifted.

Steve hit the ground shield first, making an even louder thud as the shield absorbed the impact. Tony’s foot didn’t allow Steve to pop himself up as it came down on his back with an extremely loud crunch. Two or three vertebrae were under extreme pressure from the solid armoured boot. Steve grimaced, turning his head toward the two men that stood in a stancethat was supposed to resemble power and authority.

“So, first of all, you’re probably wondering what brought us together.” Hammer started off, as if he were in some sort of business presentation ready to introduce his product.

Steve grit his teeth and tried to turn to his side, grabbing Tony’s boot only for a repulsor to be directed right at him.

“Uh-uh, I wouldn’t move… Unless you want your face fried, Captain. Your will power may be strong enough to keep my powers at bay but I don’t think you’re strong enough as a whole to withstand a repulsor blast from your ‘friend’ at point blank.”  

His fingertips tentatively squeezed at the boot, then relaxed, eyes searching for Tony’s now violet rimmed blues. “Tony…” He could see the resistance in his face; he could see Tony desperately trying to fight whatever was in his head.

“You see, it was a merger. Something that could help us both. The Psycho Prism was an invention of mine, long ago that failed due to a number of reasons… But it was something that could help spread my influence across the world, so I wouldn’t have to be there, so the world would be under my control effortlessly – but I couldn’t retain the power, I couldn’t focus it, Hammer and his tech expertise has allowed me to focus it and thus control the villains which your friends are fighting. Sure, it was using plans that I had stolen from Doctor Doom, but Mr Hammer had no problem in adding his own spin to it, it seems extremely effective with my new team. Quite an assembly of my own, wouldn’t you say? All I had to do was strike a deal with Mr Hammer – I don’t put him under my influence and we work together, building together, stronger devices that would allow me to control all of you. Alas, only one obstacle stood in my way…”

Tony’s boot pushed down harder on Steve.

“You.”

“W-what did you do to Tony?!” Steve yelled, wincing under the excruciating pressure. The push to his side was forcing the bones to crack, he could _feel_ it, he could feel every ounce on his frame, he could feel his bones bending inwards and caving in on him.

“Now that we’ve quite exceptionally explained our intentions, I feel as though you should get finished off…” The Purple Man turned to Hammer, who rubbed his hands together far too eagerly.

“Go on, Stark…” Hammer took a few paces, standing alarmingly close to Tony, whispering so that his cigarette singed breath touched Tony’s skin. Steve could smell the cigarette smoke on his breath from the floor and it made him cringe. “Break him… And feel that you’re breaking him, your friend… I want you to remember every second of this.”

Tony reached down, grabbing Steve by the collar, but was quickly kicked back when Steve lashed out. Not that Tony could contain a strong grip even with his suit, one arm wasn’t enough to keep Steve pinned. Steve bolted for the railings, but Tony flew after him – tackling his body in the way a football player would – going right for his abdomen and keeping up the momentum as he smashed him through the pane of glass and out into the courtyard of the factory, shards of glass flying everywhere.

Steve was pummelled outside into the rain, shards in his back, on the floor around him as Tony stayed on top of him, punching him, beating him bloody against the mud that he had landed on. Cap grabbed Tony’s good hand and pushed him back, but Tony seized the opportunity to shove Steve down into the ground. He lifted his arm and brought his elbow down with a loud-

**CRACK!!!**

Steve yelped out in pain, screaming as he felt the metal shatter his bone.


	4. Chapter 4

There they were, outside in the rain, fighting, drenched already with Steve partially covered in mud. The weight only dragged his already fatigued moves, but currently he was completely still, completely in shock. The nerves in his leg felt raw and exposed, a huge amount of pain in his lower body as he attempted to move his legs, his elbows now digging into the ground, his shield having been knocked miles away when he and Tony were brawling on the ground. “Tony!” Steve called out pleadingly, his voice shrill from the yell he had just made, his throat still hurting but not nearly as much as the shooting sharp pain in his leg.

“I.. I can’t… My legs!” He wanted to yell more, but he knew that he had to at least stop Tony, hinder him somehow before even attempting to rattle some sense into him.  

Tony showed no signs of stopping, but still Steve continued to call out to him.

“Tony, listen to me! You can fight this! You’re being controlled; you can fight all of this…” He reached up, with a slow shaky hand to press against Tony’s face as far as he could before Tony looked back at him. “I know you can fight this.” He whispered.

Steve tried his best to swing his arms out, his gloved fingertips, red as Tony’s armour reached for his leg, sliding down it with a loud squeak. It was then he realised due to the rain that they were soaked in, he couldn’t grab him.

“Tony… Please, listen to me… Fight this… You need to fight this.” He breathed heavily, pushing himself up with his pure core strength to reach up toward the man towering over him. He wished he could move, he wished he could stand up to reach for him and grab his face and look into his eyes – but he couldn’t. He couldn’t even move his legs and that made his chest ache with worry.

Tony knelt down, feeling some sort of resistance in his body. He could see hazy images of his head; he and Steve standing on a rooftop together, Steve with his hand on Tony’s shoulder, giving that stare that he could never forget… So filled with warmth, love, affection, tenderness – Steve.

His eyes began to focus, slowly, on the figure on the floor in front of him, kneeling down as he could feel Steve’s glove touch his face, pushing back the black strands of floppy hair that were matted down to his damp skin.

“S-steve…” he struggled to say.

“That’s it Tony, fight it.”

Tony’s single remaining hand grabbed Steve by the collar of his uniform and tugged him closer, glaring eye to eye with him, teeth bared as he fought the voices in his head commanding him to beat Steve to a bloody pulp. Each strike he landed on Steve was something that he began to _feel_ , a lag in response, he could _feel_ his fist making impact earlier, he could _feel_ his elbow slamming down on both of Steve’s knees and how it felt for them to break under his power.

His body trembled, it quaked with the realisation that he had broken Steve. Slowly but surely the colour was returning to Tony’s eyes as he pulled Steve closer. The rain danced along his features, droplets trickling down his temple.

Steve knew it was now or never, he needed to pull out all of the stops this time, but as he cupped his hand around the outside of Tony’s jaw his heart aching with desperation his eyes darted toward the two figures standing by the balcony of the factory, the Purple Man holding out an umbrella with Hammer standing underneath it with a smug look and a square device in his hand.

“Oh say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light!” Hammer sang with a tone deaf voice that made Steve cringe.

“Enough of this Hammer, let’s go.”

“You know where we’re going, chums? We’re going to get as far away from here as we can. I’m glad Tony will keep you busy; I think it’ll be a bitter sweet death actually, for the both of you. While you’re here I’ve had bombs planted all over the city, including right there.” His arm swung out and gestured toward the factory. “Distractions are easy, huh. We managed to use all these guys, all these villains as our pawns to separate you all, and now you’re all going to fall one by one. Enjoy, it’s been a… _Blast_!” Hammer waved his hand and the sound of blades cutting the air was heard nearby. In a matter of moments, one of his drone-helicopters, a steel chunkier helicopter with spotlights beaming from its base cut through the dark clouds above and extended a ladder to the two.

Hammer practically skipped toward the ladder, latching onto it with the Purple Man grabbing the rung just under him. “Ciao heroes! For good this time!”

“Tony, Tony we have to go, we have to get out of here! We have to go tell the others…!” Steve’s hand moved to his radio, trying to press the device only to hear static and loud explosions in the distance. His breathing quickened. “Tony, Iron Man!”

Tony’s eyes were still shifting from purple to light brown. The grunts from the man behind his clenched teeth, sounds escaping from the back of his throat.

Steve pulled Tony closer, gently his raindrop covered lips brushed against the man of his secret affection. He wasn’t going to die here, but if anything ought to snap Tony out of the control this was it – this was his last chance – a confession. His breathing skimmed over Tony’s skin, his hand pulling him closer to just skim his nose against the tip of Tony’s rounder one.

“Tony…” he whispered, pleadingly, his commanding tone now reduced to a broken chime.

The touch of lips sent a spark through ~~~~Tony, his body fought more, it pushed against the thoughts and commands in his head, but just at that moment there was a loud BOOM from behind them. The windows shattered with the sound – glass flying outward in every direction. The foundation of the building started to shake, the insides collapsing, but it certainly didn’t help that Steve and Tony where fighting right by the outside wall of factory. Salvation and safety was just meters away, all Tony had to do was lift them both and move – but the walls came tumbling down. Steve could see the high chimneys begin to collapse, coming straight for them both.

That was it.

That was their end.

And he’d never gotten to really tell Tony…

Really tell him…

How he had _loved_ him.

Steve closed his eyes. His heart beat slowed. Suddenly the loud noises were muffled…

That was until he felt the cold kiss of metal press against his chest. Tony huddled over him, he shielded him.

The last thing Steve heard was Tony’s high whisper. “Steve…”


	5. Chapter 5

***

The last thing Tony could remember was leaving Steve at the designated drop-off point, waiting until he saw the Captain charge in full-force before following Hammer’s signal to the factory.

He pushed through the rain, moving far too quickly for the droplets to have a chance to settle on the smooth metal as he cut through the air, catching the light of the lightening whenever it struck. It was all so vivid in his mind, as though he were going through it at that moment. Tails of blue left in the sky while he flew to his target and landed, cautiously by the entrance.

He had held both repulsors out, and kicked open the door with powerful force. His lights guided his path, even as nervous as he was to see an enemy he hadn’t seen in so long. To be honest, the thought of Hammer sent chills down his spine, the man was always so obnoxious, so twisted and insisted in constant low blows. Unfortunately, dealing with someone who called themselves ‘smart’ often meant that they would think outside the box, which was far more troublesome to predict, even with Tony’s simulator software giving him odds and statistics in the corner of the HUB display on his internal monitors. The eyeslits he was peering out of also lit his path as he stepped further into the dormant factory. He didn’t know why on Earth he should be nervous about this plan given that Hammer was inferior to himself in terms of intellect, it was the unpredictability and uncertainty that came along with it. But Tony reminded himself it was only Hammer he was dealing with, so there was no reason to be scared. Instead he held his head high and continued with renewed confidence.  

It was hard to be confident when there was nothing but silence.

Silence was far scarier than clatters. “Marco… Polo?” he called.

No response.                 

“Marco…?” he proceeded to say after a few more steps inward. The dust shifted under his heavy boots, with each thump on the wooden floor there was a small puff upward.

“JARVIS… What do you see?” Tony asked again. “JARVIS?” He tapped his faceplate, groaning as he noticed there was some sort of signal disruptor about, that was the only way JARVIS would be blocked. “Hammer, that’s slimy. Come on, play fair!”

Just as Tony had said that, a large drone bot, heavy and clunky as was all of Hammer’s tech, leaped out from behind a machine and smacked Tony’s faceplate away, the golden plate was forced off its hinges and sent across the room, clattering into a pile of old brooms.

“Unf!”

Tony clutched his jaw and spun around with a powerful acrobatic kick to get his distance, something that Steve had taught him. Once Tony had regained his footing, he held his repulsors up, shooting the swarm of bots that came at him.

Tackling them one by one was relatively easy, shooting them down and watching them crumble into heaps of scrap metal. Tony actually considered this fun; it was like a training simulator. Hammer’s bots were always poorly made, so it didn’t take much to take them down.

He wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue as he powered through the swarm, but as he carried on, his eyes began to feel heavy, his breathing followed. He blamed it on feeling out of breath and the amount of dust that was scattered around the place. Out from behind one of the machines, he could see a man in a dark purple suit, pinstriped and extremely well fitted to his lean figure – The Purple Man, Zebediah Killgrave. And, of course, next to him was Justin Hammer, looking a little too smug. Tony tried to open his mouth to shoot out a retort but as he opened it the words failed to escape. It was as though they were trapped at the bottom of his throat. Instantly his hands went for his neck, trying to wring the words out.

Nothing was escaping, but Tony knew why – the Purple Man was getting to him. Killgrave stepped closer, calmly parting the robots as though they were the red sea and grabbed hold of Tony’s head, staring deeply into his eyes.

“You walked straight into this one…”

Hammer chuckled in the background. “You know what we’re going to do to you, Tony? My buddy, my pal?”

Tony wretched, trying to move but once more his body wasn’t obeying his thoughts; he was becoming a puppet on strings held by the Purple Man. He wanted to move with all of his might; muscles tensing as he attempted to break through the dark mist that was falling over his eyes. The darkness became thicker and thicker, and at that moment he could feel two of the drones clasp metal cuffs around his arms and drag him back onto one of the factory conveyer belts.

Tony blanked out.

***

Everything after that was a blur.

At one point, he was sure that he could hear Hammer laughing. He tried his hardest to open his eyes, to get some sense of perspective, but he could see nothing but shadows moving above him. It was a violent and excruciating pain that snapped him back to consciousness; two metal blades edged just over his shoulder, large metal machines with their buzz saws at the ready to push down. Even with the smallest pressure the blades were tearing at his exposed skin that the saws had already cut to – having buzzed through his protective shoulder shell.

He was so weak that he couldn’t call for help, so dazed, still as though he was being tugged at by a leash. Tony groaned, but not even that would escape his mouth.

“All this time Tony, all this time… All you’ve ever done is try and rub your work in my face, well, look who’s laughing now huh?” Hammer laughed from above, craning over Tony’s body and tapping his armour. “Those buzz saws are great aren’t they? Well, I built them with my own two hands, that’s why!”

He was a maniac. Absolutely insane, that bone chilling laugh was something that would echo throughout the chasms of Tony’s mind for the rest of his life, he was sure of that. It was difficult to hear at points considering all of the machinery around him had come back to life after years of being dormant; huffs of steam exhaling from the small pipes, the conveyer belts moving with loud gears grinding underneath them – all but one belt, and that was the one that Tony was strapped on.

“You know why you’ll never build anything like me, Stark? Because you won’t be able to. Not any more, I won’t have you getting in my way ever again.” Hammer growled, so angry that spittle flew clumsily through the air with each word he spat ferociously.

Slowly, the buzz saws pushed down, snarling and rattling viciously. They first ripped through Tony’s flesh, edges and splatters of blood decorating the blade tips as they circulated. He wanted to move, he wanted to pull away and scream out for someone to save him. His muscles twitched as though yearning to break free. Tears swelled in his eyes and his breathing hitched. All that he could do was hope that it wouldn’t work, but that hope and those internal prayers fell on deaf ears.

“Make him watch…” Hammer said, and just like that the Purple Man snapped his fingers with glee. Tony’s head jerked to the side, his eyes forced wide as if pins were holding prying his eyelids open. He could feel his eyes burning, watering – he needed to blink but the invisible toothpicks holding his eyes open were preventing it. The blade forced itself down lower and lower, tearing into his muscle with a loud **_RRRRIP_**.

Tony was screaming in his mind, he was yelling and kicking, pleading to be let go, but instead he was forced to yell through gritted teeth – pinned down by industrial sized rusted chains, watching as the saw descended deeper into his arm and met the bone. Then there was a judder, the saw worked harder to break the heavy joint. The cutting had a higher pitch to it as it managed, slowly pushing down until there was an extremely loud snap, and the rest was like it was cutting through paper. Tony’s arm was cut clean off, gushing blood.

He was sure he was going to bleed out and die right there and then, but he felt the heat from one of Hammers bots over his shoulder.

“We can’t let my little kitten die yet, not when I have work to do.”

“Kitten?” Killgrave pulled a questioning face.

“Puppy… Dog, lap dog, that’s more like it.”

Again, Killgrave looked far from impressed, but he needed Hammer to help him with his own machine so he let it slide. He could easily just take him over and force him to work with him, but their alliance was willing… For now.

Hammer was vindicated, standing above Tony as they unstrapped him, gleaming with pride whilst he took in the sight of the blood still trickling from the wound.

“Amazing… No, _outstanding_!”

The pain was too much to cope with. Even still under the control of the Purple Man, Tony could feel every single movement he could feel the blood being drained from him, the burning of his skin. The smell of burning flesh would haunt him for the rest of his life, he was sure of that.

Hammer’s hand slipped into the inner pocket of his expensive looking blazer as he pulled out a beeping device; a small handheld tablet which allowed him to see outside through a few newly added cameras that were perched in various places along the outside of the factory.

“Seems the Captain is on his way…” Hammer groaned. “And here I was having so much fun with my new toy.”

“You wanted to mess with him more?”

“Wanted to get rid of the second arm since the first was so entertaining but I’ll suppose I’ll let him keep one for now, until he’s done with my—our – bidding.”

Killgrave’s finger tapped the bottom of his chin as he eyed Iron Man, laying there still, a pained expression painted over his face. It was extremely satisfying to see Tony suffering again, but this would definitely be his own comeuppance considering how the last time he had planned something to this magnitude it was messed up by Captain America himself. It was about time the mighty Captain paid for what he had done. His plan was going so perfectly until Steve had come along, and now it was his chance to continue where he had left off; for Tony to feel what it was like to destroy his team mate. It was all part of a larger plan he had in mind.  

Purple Man loomed over Tony, grabbing his hair that poked out of what was left of his helmet and using that as means to raise him, staring deep into his eyes.

“I’ll enjoy this, Tony Stark…”

The last thing Tony could see was the petrifying, intrusive glare before his memories went blank.    

He struggled to fight against the force in his mind, but it was no use, not when he was so weak as it was.

Everything was dark again.

_Steve… Save me, Steve…_

Visions of the Captain appeared, fighting him, hiding from him, running from him – everything was unclear, a blur where all he could see was Steve…  

***


	6. Chapter 6

There was the ever soft pitter-patter of drops all around them. The water trickled along the bricks and bars that were scattered all around, traveling down and along the rigid surfaces and rubble that used to compose the factory before the detonation. The drops were soft, gentle shards that shattered upon impact. Each drop in their millions managed to dull the surrounding fire to tiny embers and miniscule bursts. All that remained was smoke and rubble; even the smoke was beginning to dwindle; unable to sustain itself in the damp air.

It was those drops that drizzled over the huge metal bar that was just on top of Tony. A gentle stream of water made its way down the side of the rusted bar towards its edge, reaching the jagged corner before cascading momentarily in the air until it met with Tony’s eyelid. More drops followed, one by one, landing on Tony’s eyelids.

Distinguishing between dreams and reality was always a struggle for superheroes of their calibre. Going from dimension to dimension in some cases often distorted the perception of reality and what was in their universe and what was in another. It was only the drops of rain that lodged Tony back into the realworld.

_Drop, drop, drop…_

His eyelids flickered as his eyelashes weighed down with the drops of rain dancing along them. Slowly, he was pulled out of the perpetual darkness, reaching for the light.

He gasped, chocolate coloured eyes sparking to life right away with a wide blink. He gasped as he inhaled fumes from the surrounding rubble and smoke and began to cough and hack, his hand reaching over his mouth and covering it. He was strewn out on the ground, on top of something but unable to move his left arm. His shoulder twitched and he tried to move it, but even with all of his strength he couldn’t raise his hand up.

It then dawned on him; it wasn’t a dream.

Slowly, with that heavy pounding resonating in his chest, he turned to stare at the stub that was left of his arm.

Panic was an understatement. He felt intense pain just from looking at it that made him yell with shock, screaming into the sky. Tony’s tools were his hands, they were his most valued treasures, his real genius and outlet – his hands were his everything and now one of them had been taken away from him. He should’ve counted himself extremely lucky that it wasn’t his dominant hand, to be stripped of something he valued so much made him quake with fear. Internally he wanted to count his blessings, but it was hard to when he was riddled with agony and sadness, bitterly reminding himself that ‘it could be worse’, that didn’t work even in an ironic sense. He was much more vulnerable without it, not that it was the only thing on his mind at that point; he was scared, afraid of what had happened, afraid that he was unable to prevent it—afraid that he was unable to save Steve.

He had to get over it, he had to push himself up properly and find Steve under all of this rubble, but that was much easier said than done. Instinctively he kept trying to reach out using his left hand to accompany the right, but of course it was impossible now.

Each movement was harder than the next. His head was still pounding from earlier, but his mind was in complete disarray. Eventually, he managed to sit up completely, but not without ripples of pain spreading throughout his entire body.

“Steve? Cap!?” he called out – but no answer.

For the life of him, he couldn’t remember his last moment with Steve, he could remember seeing him, fighting him, but that was it – and that was infuriating all in itself.

Sifting through the rubble was a different story entirely. He began moving the rocks around to free his armoured legs, finally kicking a few of Hammer’s now-dead drones away from him. It was disgusting that the man saw his creations as disposable. Tony had a completely different outlook on everything that he built, which was why he was so sentimental toward his creations. It was almost upsetting to see fallen robotics that were used so carelessly.

With an intense struggle, Tony had managed to get to his feet, staring down at the broken robots.

“Steve?” he called out again, turning from side-to-side to see nothing but the mess of rubble that he was standing on. He took a few more paces. “Cap!”

Still nothing.

“JARVIS?” He tapped his helmet, but again there was nothing but static. He cursed the use of jammers that must have been located around the facility. It was no use trying to communicate with the others. If his connection was blocked, there was certainly no getting through to the others.

The ground shifted under his heavy boots, the sound of crushing on the rest of the debris was extremely loud. Though as he stood over the bot, he was struck with an epiphany; what if he could use these as a temporary fix, to at least give him use of his arm for now?

Tony had dabbled in prosthetics during Stark Industries’ work in tandem with various medical suppliers. Since leaving the arms manufacturing business he began making arms – literally. Prosthetics for amputees or war veterans, anyone who needed them would get the best that Stark Industries had to offer.  He knelt down (with a lot of pain), and scooped up a fallen bot into his arm, using his foot to hold it down while he yanked off its arm to reveal the wiring that was coated under the hood of its shoulder. It was painful to do that to someone else’s creation, even one of Hammer’s creations. _Consider it compensation_.

The armoured man looked around again, trying to see if he could find Steve but he knew he would be much more efficient with both working hands, so he had to do this. Tony sat down in a lotus position in his armour, using the soles of his boots as a clamp to hold the arm in place as he began rummaging through the wires with his good hand, trying to re-wire it. Again, this was much easier in his head. He had to crane his neck down and awkwardly tug at the wires, using his teeth at some points, which wasn’t the wisest idea, but he had to ignore the small shocks he was getting through his teeth in order for this to work properly. Small surges were nothing, as long as he could get this working. He tore off the plastic cases of the wires to reveal the copper, and awkwardly angled himself toward the arm so that it was fixed to the stub. Now this was where it would get painful; Tony grabbed a shard of glass that was nearby and surprisingly easy to get a hold of and used it to rip the cut open.

Tony was squeamish when it came to the sight of his own blood, even after all these years; let alone damaging himself in that way. But he knew it was for his own good, so he carried on, at one point it began to get so painful that he stopped, taking a deep breath and reaching for a small stone to bite on while he continued so that his yelps would be muffled. Sweat dripped down his temple, but was quickly washed away thanks to the rain. Annoyingly the two prominent pokes of hair that would stand up were now matted down to his forehead, heavy and soaked with rain, and meant he had to keep flicking his head, but he’d managed eventually – wiring in the copper wires to his arm and then forcing it up so it slotted into his shoulder perfectly. To get it to fit, he had to remove his chest piece which was done in a press of a button. Luckily it slipped into its compact holding form which was half of a briefcase, as shoddy as that case looked due to all the damage on it, it wasn’t worth keeping when it just collapsed into a poorly formed mess. His armour was destroyed, leaving him more vulnerable than ever. Luckily he had his new arm. This would just have to do.

He couldn’t believe that he was now reliant on Hammer’s tech to function; there was something about it that left a sour taste in his mouth. But he had no time to dwell on the fact that he was using shoddy technology as much as he had re-wired it to his specifications.

It was time to find Steve.


	7. Chapter 7

It was taking hours to sift through all the rubble, even with his new arm, which from time-to-time sent surges through his body, forcing him to tremble whilst his muscles began to seize. Occasionally it would stunt his progress, but he tried to shift through as much as he could, pushing the bars to one side and throwing stones back. He was sure the last thing he had seen was Steve, so he concentrated his efforts on the area he had woken up in – though when he had woken he was on top of more rubble, he prayed Steve was under that pile but so far no good.

It was beginning to get frustrating with the amount that Tony had to dig through to no avail. The spits of rain kept getting in his face, but he kept trudging on regardless, pushing away the stones, throwing the rubble from side to side to desperately reach his partner.

He tried and tried.

He pushed and pushed.

His frustration had reached the end of its tether when he stared up at the darkened sky, filled with clouds with one or two stars making their appearances. He let out a whimper of frustration, considering a whimper was all he could muster with the lack of strength he had left. He was completely drained and his movements clearly displayed that with their sluggish sways. His rage built up and he ended up kicking a stone out of the way, only for it to fly to one side with a loud thud.

Tony ran his hand through hair, his good hand, tugging at the wet strands as they went against the grain of his natural parting. That was before his eyes fell to the ground, caught on a patch of blue. He had never dropped to his hands and knees so quickly in his entire life. He began throwing the rocks away quicker, his eyes widening as he spotted Steve’s uniform with that distinct material that he had made himself, how could he forget the texture. He and Steve had sat down together for hours deciding upon something that was flexible yet durable and comfortable – good old American ingenuity.

He heaved the stones to aside, the bigger ones taking their toll on his back. Without his armour to support it, tasks were much more difficult. He couldn’t think about the strain his body was under when Steve was in trouble. He cast his pains and grief aside for the moment while he uncovered most of Steve’s body. He worked upwards and eventually brushed away a few rocks to reveal Steve’s face – he was unconscious, head tilted to one side, resting upon a pillow of grass and mud. The rocks that were on his face had left a few bruises and cuts, but he was lucky he had been in a tiny air pocket. The initial panic subsided after Tony’s hand moved for Steve’s neck and felt a pulse – it was faint, but it still beat ever so softly. His soldier was alive.

A mass of rubble had managed to pile on top of Steve during the fall, probably when the strength of the explosion was so powerful that Tony was knocked away from Steve – but clearly he had helped protect him somehow – if Tony hadn’t thrown himself and his weight on him Steve wouldn’t have been on the ground. The shifts and falls of rubble must have been an after effect when Tony was unconscious – pushing them slightly away from each other only after the explosion from after-shocks from the building. That’s why there was rubble between Steve and Tony.

His own hands moved for the rocks. So much for a perfect manicure that he had gotten just days ago – his hands were gritty, dirt under his nails, broken, calloused and chipped with tiny cuts and bruises along his hands. The tell-tale signs of blisters were riddled along his palms, but he needed to get those rocks off Steve’s legs.

A bar was laid across Steve’s legs, which didn’t help him. Both legs were covered completely by this huge, solid support beam that must have fallen. Tony placed both hands on the bar, his fingertips curling around the metal edge, his electronic fingers following before he heaved once; using up the entirety of his remaining strength to shift the bar only inches off Steve’s body. His heart was thudding in his ears when he lifted it, back muscles tense, knees bent whist he pulled with all of his might – tugging the bar only to push it away from Steve’s body. It landed on the ground with a huge thump, creating a small dust cloud. Tony’s hand swiped in front of his face, his fingers numb from the over exertion. He coughed and turned his head away from the dust and residue.

He fell back to his position back on his knees, far too weak to stand. When the dust subsided, he leaned closer to see Steve’s legs. The sight made him queasy; bone jutting out of the knee and the other had been broken beforehand. As he stared at it the flashback of him cracking Steve’s knee flashed before his eyes. The tremble in his body increased tenfold, he held both of his hands up but his focus honed in on the one responsible, the one attached to him from the start; his flesh hand.

It was these hands that did this – he was the one fighting Steve, he was the one that broke his legs and because of him Steve was unable to move, and this had happened.

Horror surged through his body. A gut wrenching agony echoed throughout his frame, his teeth chattering, golden brown eyes narrowed only to prevent tears from spilling but that alone was a fruitless effort; the tears began to spill, warm drops trickling down his cheeks. His throat closed and he found his breathing hitched.

Panic attacks were a frequent thing that Tony had learned to handle, but this was a guilt-ridden panic that was seizing his entire body. It felt like a clamp on his heart, it felt as though something was gripping at his lungs and stopping him from breathing.

There was no way in hell Steve could move his legs, not with that damage. Tony could see nerves, he could see where they had been severed and were just hanging on by tendrils of muscle – the bar landing on top of them forced the bone out and destroyed them. He was no biologist but if even he could see that just by initial observation he knew something was most certainly wrong.

His head turned to the bot that he had dismantled before to create himself his own functioning arm. If he could do the same for Steve he knew he’d be able to walk again. So once more, despite the exhaustion, he pulled himself to his feet, dragging them and the stone from fallen rubble under his feet, reaching for the bot and dragging it back to Steve.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” He repeated as he tried to calm his shaking hands, but the thought of having to cut Steve’s legs to replace them was destroying him. That and battling with the fact that Steve was in this entire predicament because of him made things even worse.

Tony brushed away the tears with his wet forearm, which had little to no effect.

“Deep breaths…” he whispered to himself, as though trying to calm himself with a vocal mantra.

Instead of going for Steve’s leg right away, he dismantled the bots legs, pulling them off only to notice a garish ‘HAMMER’ logo painted across the side of each calf. He grimaced, reaching for the stone he was using for cutting and striking it out the same way someone would key a car.

He hated Hammer. He hated him even more now. No, in fact, hate didn’t quite sum up what he felt – more like a boiling rage was settled in Tony’s heart.

Once the cybernetic legs were torn off, leaving only the torso, the head and one arm, he stared at Steve. The sparkle in his eye was faded; he stared with a dull culpability.

“I’m sorry… Steve, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”


	8. Chapter 8

Tony had done it.

He had successfully engineered cybernetic legs – attaching them to Steve. His hands where soaked in blood. Not only had it taken hours to wire, but it took hours to pull up the conviction to cut off Steve’s legs. He had to stop numerous times to turn his head to one side and actually purge his system. He couldn’t believe he had cut Steve like that – replaced parts of him. There the soldier was in a torn uniform from the legs down, with new chrome gleaming enhancements on his legs with splatters of blood. Steve’s boots didn’t fit either – not on the soles of the bot. Tony had stolen the power source from the old drone and used it to allow Steve’s legs to function. He was sure that they would work, and praised Rhodey and Pepper for pushing him to going into military grade augmentations for veterans – having done all of his research beforehand, he was certain that they were functioning. All it involved now was for Steve to wake up.

He hated that he was now reliant on Hammer’s tech to work, he despised the fact that the man that had put him there was now technically his saviour, and battling against his own hubris to save Steve was a struggle all in its own. The conflict of interest was indeed using the enemies’ parts to protect someone he has loved for so long. Even though the initial struggle was over, and he had created something functional, he knew that every time he looked at what had now composed their body he would be reminded of the man he hated with every bone in his body. He swore to himself that once he had gotten to his lab he would rebuild them something else, with his own hands, with his **own** tech. With his own sweat and blood.

Meanwhile, he curled up by Steve’s side, trying to recuperate from the overexertion. He lifted Steve’s hand delicately and tucked himself under it, seeking his warmth given he was only in a work vest. His hands went for a nearby puddle, using the rainwater to clean the blood off his hands. He would never get that blood off, not in his head – he kept seeing it, he could feel the warm splatter over his fingertips while he was wiring Steve’s severed nerve endings to the wires of the augmentations.

Did he really deserve Steve? Did he deserve to be this close?

He scrubbed at his hands again, over and over. They were numb with the cold and the non-stop rain anyway, he was still helpless and couldn’t quite overcome the guilt that was tightening around his chest. So he turned to Steve, wrapping his arm around his torso and holding him close, whispering apologetic words to him in search of redemption. Instead, he only whispered until his voice was hoarse, until his fatigue grasped hold of him and gently, slowly, put him to sleep.

The sleep was absolute. A darkness fell over him as his muscles took that time to recharge.

_There was a twitch._

_He could feel it right by his abdomen._

_Maybe it was just water…_

_No, there it was again._

Tony had to raise his eyelids, and did so with a huge amount of effort. The weight on them was unimaginable, the burn behind them was even worse. It was like waking up before that first cup of coffee.

His attention went toward Steve’s hand, reaching his own over it cautiously to feel that twitch, wondering if he was dreaming or not – but Steve’s hand moved. Steve’s fingers gently skimmed over Tony’s, small motions that slowly and carefully laced their fingers together. Quickly, he turned around to see Steve, laying there with his eyes open, blinking to avoid the raindrops that came from above – finally though, the rain was starting to stop – the drops had become lighter and were reduced to a spit.

Tony wanted to kiss him there and then. His heart filled with glee, the spark returned to his eye just to see Steve alive and well. He wanted to throw himself at him but he was still too guilt ridden to do so – not when he had reduced Steve to this, he couldn’t. Even though it felt like his chest was going to explode with emotion.

Instead he reached over to him, his metal fingertips gently pushing back wet strands of Steve’s hair and shielding his eyes from the rain.

“Morning, soldier…”

“Tony?” Steve sat up, the blood rushing to his head – Tony who was leaning on him rocked a bit, swivelling around on his backside to regain his balance while he was still seated.

His hand reached and settled on Steve’s shoulder “Whoa, slow down there.” He could see how Steve’s skin paled significantly when he rose. “You okay there? Steve?”

There was a hesitant nod that followed once the shapes of light began to dissipate, allowing him to see properly once more. “Y-yea, Tony--” He was still flustered, still trying to regain his bearings when he felt two arms wrap around him – one warm and the other icy cold. Still though, the embrace settled him. In return, he raised his arms around Tony’s small frame, expecting to feel the remnants of Tony’s shoulder armour around his shoulder blade but he couldn’t feel a thing. For now he didn’t question it, he just accepted the safety of being held by his co-leader. His own hand reached up for the nape of Tony’s neck, touching the wet black strands, trailing down the curve of his spine.

Their embraces were always like this – always more than just a hug, always more than just friends. There was something deep and profound they had, and it felt deeper than ever at that moment in time. He could feel Tony’s heartbeat against his chest, he could feel the soft buzz of his reactor, he could feel the gentle tremor of his lean, athletic body.

_God, he loved him._

He was the last thing he had seen – having opened his eyes before the darkness befell him. The last person he had _wanted_ to see. The last person he had wantedto hear; the real Tony.

It was so good to have him back. He couldn’t explain how much he had missed him in those short moments. Pleading to Tony’s humanity was often a painful thing to do, but regardless, it had brought him back to his senses.

Reluctantly he pulled back – remembering what had happened to Tony’s arm.

“Tony how…” He stared at the arm that had previously been holding him. “…Did you… How did you make that? Your arm, it was completely gone when we were fighting.”

Tony sucked in his cheeks, his calmed content expression fading once the Captain pulled back from the hug. “Hammer, he’d cut off my arm.” He cringed at the memory that was still fresh in his mind, his good hand instinctively reaching for the shoulder of his mechanical arm. “I had to use his drone, made a makeshift augmentation. All that work in prosthetics I was telling you about, you remember that, right?”

“Of course, how can I forget? You said you’d help out a few of my pals with them.”

“Well, yeah, that’s what I did. That’s how I fixed myself up. Trust me, as soon as we get to my lab I’ll fix us up with better augmentations, I hate having part of Hammer compose me.”

“Us…” the use of plural made him wonder.

“Uh, it’s nothing, I mean…”

Tony’s evasiveness roused his curiosity only further. He moved his legs, but struggled, making a small groan while his leg arched up, knee in the air. His kneecap caught the light of a small distant ember that still remained alight, shrouded and protected by what remained of the building and he squinted.

The sheen of metal was what Steve got a glimpse of, before leaning closer to it, his second leg rising and arching just like the first. Aghast, his pupils constricted.

The silence was what scared Tony the most, and his own posture began to stiffen, watching as Steve’s long fingers reached out, touching the metal outline and withdrawing as though he had just touched fire. They reached out again, gently touching the surface, following the shape down to his calf. His expression the entire time remained unchanged, but Tony could see the subtle quivers in his jaw, the slight part in his lips, the distinct furrow of his powerfully shaped eyebrows that twitched with confusion and a clear amount of fear.

“Steve, I’m sorry… I had to, I… This is my fault…”

There was no reply, instead his leg moved, his ankle making a small circle that shifted the loose debris under him.

“Talk to me, please…” Tony begged.


	9. Chapter 9

Contrary to popular belief, even Super Soldiers were scared at times. Steve was someone who had always been self-sufficient, that was after Project Rebirth of course. The fear that coursed through his entire system at that moment was unimaginable; it was painful, knowing for well that he was now reliant on an augmentation – an artificial addition to his body. This was coming from a man who had seen his friends needing such limbs, needing and requiring these enhancements in order to feel whole again.

When he raised his leg, the mechanics moved accordingly. It was fascinating to a degree but also daunting. With the overwhelming sense of confusion flooding his mind, all he could think about was how his life had changed from this moment onward, how he would never be the same. There he was in the past rejecting some of Tony’s suits, and now he had no choice but to embrace what was now part of him. Of course there was an underlying resentment, but it was certainly not Tony’s fault – it was the Purple Man and Hammer. It wasn’t like he had time to dwell on it, but Steve gave Tony the benefit of the doubt. He knew that Tony wouldn’t have gone this far if he didn’t see a need to.

Somehow, Tony felt a twinge in his heart, like he could feel the silent soldier’s feelings. He wasn’t sure how, or if it were just a fatigue induced hallucination, either way, he found himself trying to crane his neck, desperate to lock eyes with Steve. His fingers twitched, but he leaned over, surpassing his fears and placed a hand on Steve’s hand.

“Steve…”

He could feel the sudden twitch under his fingertips, and Steve’s hand shifted to hold Tony’s instead, in a tight hold with the smallest of smiles on his face. He could see the pain under that stare, but Steve trying to be positive was a good start – better than he had anticipated.

He kept a grip of Tony’s hand, glad that he was there for support and most of all glad that he was back to normal. “We need to find the others.”  

“I thought you’d be mad…” Tony babbled.

“I’m… We’ll work on it, but if you think that I was going to leave you over you giving me the ability to walk again, then you’ve taken me for a sucker, Stark. There’s no way in hell I’d leave you, Shellhead. We’ll be together through the thick and the thin,” Steve confessed, now taking advantage of his second chance at life. “The two of us.”

Was that some sort of confession?

The last few words rang through Tony’s mind and caused him to bite his lower lip. Obviously he tried not to read to into it, but Steve wasn’t extremely open with his feelings and emotions, so this was a huge step for him.

Tony’s expression softened and his heart lifted, pushing himself up to his feet and offering his hand to Steve. “Come on Winghead, we’ve got a job to do.”

With that, Steve pulled himself up with Tony’s help. It was clear Tony struggled with the weight but the amount of times they had trained together meant that Tony was used to carrying him. It just helped to be wearing a suit sometimes.

Steve felt his legs rocking, he could hear them creaking and he tried to get a footing, but it wasn’t easy. It felt like he was just learning to walk again, putting one foot in front of the other slowly but surely. The entire time Tony had his arm wrapped around Steve’s torso, just under his arms to help him stay upright. Un-level surfaces were hard to walk on as it was, Tony couldn’t begin to fathom how it felt for Steve while they were surrounded by a surface that moved under the slightest pressure. Whenever Steve felt unsteady, Tony’s grip tightened, his fingers curling into the remainder of the uniform that was left on Steve’s upper half.

“We’ll head back to the mansion, get ourselves fixed up first, and then find the others. There’s only so much we can do with these things.”

Steve agreed with Tony, hobbling alongside him until they had gotten to the pavement, stepping tentatively at first. Tony took the chance to pull back (even though he didn’t really want to pull away from Steve’s body warmth)  “How’s the communication signals going?”

Tony shrugged at him. “Since I’ve woken up I haven’t been able to get in contact with JARVIS. So that’s completely down, my suit was half broken though. When I was working on you I tried yours too – down too. You know what I haven’t tried though…” He shifted a little, digging his hand into his pocket and pulling out his Stark-cell, which had a cracked screen. At the sight of it, he frowned, knowing for well it would be costly to replace a prototype cell-phone.

Tony’s eyes shot open, his skin paled and his jaw fell open too.

“Tony? What’s the matter?” Steve worried.

“It’s… This…”

“What?”

Steve craned over to take a peek at the screen, blinking when he had noticed what Tony’s index finger was gesturing to.

“N-no…”

“No what?”

“No internet!” Tony gestured frantically, pointing at the symbol on his phone over and over.

Steve smacked his own hand on his forehead, dragging it down. Of course Tony’s priorities would lie within the internet. The frown on Tony’s face was so stretched that it could’ve reached the ground, that was until Tony flashed the saddest puppy-eyes at Steve, over doing it by adding a lip wibble as he pawed at his phone screen.

“How am I going to update my Stark-tunes…”

“Tony.” There it was, that stern voice that would make Tony clear his throat and straighten his posture in a snap, but instead of straightening himself up he just leaned closer to Steve and pouted.

“That means no communication; again, we’re going to have to go all the way home for this to work. I’m sure I can fix something up when we get there, and use that to get in touch with the others.” He replied, his eyes occasionally drifting down to Steve’s legs to make sure they were still functioning. He didn’t exactly know how reliable HAMMER tech would be.  

“I’m sure you will” Steve replied with the utmost faith, his feet making loud clanking noises against the floor.

T’Challa had done a great job evacuating the city, as he said he’d do. It was clear from the get go that there was something big lurking on the horizon, so T’Challa’s call to evacuate the city was certainly a good idea, but it left them in this barren city that they were both so used to being the centre of attention, the hustle and bustle being nothing but a quiet whisper of the wind now. Hammer’s explosives not only impacted the factory – there was a trigger of explosives spanning the entirety of the city that looked as though they had all detonated at the same time. The smoke was turning white, the rain having extinguished most of the embers by now. If there were stragglers left after T’Challa’s evacuation, then they had most certainly looted the stores. Broken glass was scattered everywhere, store windows were clearly broken into, displays were taken, and clothes and some items littered the streets.

Tony’s phone was finally returned to his pocket after a good while of fiddling around with it. The sound of Steve’s feet scraping against the ground was starting to grate at him already, and he could only imagine how annoying it must have been for Steve. Still guilt ridden, Tony was keen to suggest alternatives to help Steve. “Hey, Steve, you know we can’t walk around in these tatters.”

“The mansion isn’t far from here Tony, I’m sure we could soldier on.”

Tony’s arm twitched. It was as though he could feel the sadness from Steve again; he could feel how the scraping on the concrete was a constant reminder of what he had lost. His hand reacted by placing itself on Steve’s shoulder, as though it had a mind of its own for a moment. His expression, clearly surprised as he withdrew, staring at his new appendage while he flexed its fingers out, “Sorry about that… Anyway, I was thinking that we could maybe…” His head tilted toward an open store window.

“Look, I’ll pay them back, you know I will. Your foot is taking way too much damage there. I don’t think that those legs are equipped to take on the pavement and your weight, not saying that you should lose a few pounds there Cap, but you know…” He tried to joke, giving Steve a coaxing nudge. “So let’s get you some shoes.”

That was an awkward shift in conversation as he pulled Steve by the arm toward the looted store, being careful as he stepped inside. He grabbed a black long sleeve t-shirt, simple, chic, perfect – asides from the arm he had to tear off to fit his bionic arm through, but he considered himself a fashionista of sorts so this was just him making a regular outfit fabulous. Jeans and a pair of sneakers were next – it was far more comfortable than wearing his soaked to the bone workshop clothing, in fact being in dry clothes again warmed him up instantly, he could feel himself burying his face into the fabric at times with pure and utter gratitude. Without a doubt he had shifted into his new gear with Steve standing right there. He wasn’t bashful around the Captain, after all, he had seen a **lot** during their gym sessions and after showers. Regardless, Tony carried on as he was, shopping as though the store were still active, taking his sweet time to find Steve something perfect. It was no surprise that Tony would very often come home with bags full of gifts for Steve, so Steve was used to it – flattered, sometimes (most of the time) not needing the gifts and feeling awkward when showered with gifts, but Steve had realised over time that it was Tony’s way of showing affection, so he accepted them.

Sooner or later Tony arrived with a pile of clothes for Steve to try on, with shoes too – loads of different kinds. He wondered what would fit over the huge bionic legs, standing there in front of the newly made pile with his hand stroking through his goatee. “I think there’s only one pair that’ll fit over those,” he said, grabbing the knee-high Converse and then pairing it with a pair of gym shorts. Before Tony could reach for a garish looking flower printed shirt, Steve tugged the white t-shirt closer to him. He was forced to shed himself of his old uniform, tattered and torn, leaving it to one side with a bitter taste in his mouth. He hated leaving it behind, but he knew Tony would design a new one – it was just the sentiment behind the previous outfit that he’d miss.

Tony couldn’t help but stare at Steve’s muscular body. No one in their right mind wouldn’t take the time to appreciate such an Adonis, standing there right in front of him, bare and exposed to the world. Tony’s mind wondered deep into his fantasies, shaking his head before scooting closer to Steve after he’d put on the gym shorts and t-shirt.

He held up the shoes he’d found. “Let me help you with these.”

“Guess I don’t really have a choice huh?”

“I thought it’d be sweet, here’s me trying to be nice.” Tony pouted at the Captain again, jutting out his lower lip until Steve was seated, extending his robotic legs. Tony knelt down, slipping on Steve’s new shoes carefully, being sure not to lodge any of the circuitry. Again, in his mind, it felt as though he were prince charming and Steve was Cinderella. Tony took his time to let his mind sink into the fantasy, eventually glancing up at Steve, who seemingly had a faint (extremely faint) blush over his cheeks, staring down at Tony with the same emotion.

Tony bit the inside of his lip, standing up after Steve’s shoes were all laced up.

“Looking good, Cap.”

Steve let out a snort of a laugh. “Thanks, Tony… I’m glad these fit.”

“Once we go home, I’ll get you fixed up ~~,~~ properly. Something streamlined so you can wear your old boots, I won’t let you go without the old signature look.  I promise.”

Steve stared at him for a moment as they exchanged a stare that in his mind lasted for hours. It was so intense, just so warm. Tony looked so in need of Steve’s comfort, and strangely enough it was as though the Captain could feel something in his chest – a feeling of guilt. He wondered for a moment if it was just too much time being spent with Tony that he could feed off his emotions. After all, Steve was surprisingly in tune with others emotions, especially Tony’s given their unspoken bond that had turned into something much more in secret. Something in him urged him to brush his hands through Tony’s hair for a second, just in gratitude before they stood up again. “Feels better too. Come on, I know you’re eager to get back – the sooner we get back the sooner we can get in contact with the others and check that they’re okay.”

“Yeah, true,” Tony replied, his arm looping around Steve’s, with the excuse that he was helping him walk.

Steve wasn’t about to object to that, even though he’d almost become accustomed to his legs.


	10. Chapter 10

Now geared up to perfection, it was time to get going back to the mansion to get the communication systems up to help locate the others. Their safety was paramount, and they both knew they couldn’t spend more time fiddling around with parts, not when the others were in a compromised situation. Steve nor Tony knew what the Purple Man and Hammer had up their sleeves, needless to say it was going to be big.

Tony had luckily found a couple of spare wires in the department store, clearly meant for lighting but they had already been pulled out and exposed from a slab of drywall, so it wasn’t really any harm for Tony to tug these wires out with an appropriate amount of force and use them to help re-wire his reactor to his bionic arm; the wires trailing over his chest and leading directly into his arm, so he had a makeshift repulsor if he needed it, powered by his chest. It didn’t take two seconds to wire, but it meant that as they were walking he was still fiddling with the pieces in his palm, trying to make a direct output to match that of his own armour.

“I miss flying. I could’ve been there in two seconds flat.” He mumbled while walking, head low and focused on his hand. His mind drifted back to the armour he had to discard earlier before sifting through the rubble, sighing at the loss.

“I’m sure you could have,” Steve humoured him, returning a pat on the shoulder. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. We’re nearly there, there’s no use wallowing in despair and regret.”  

“True words of inspiration from my one and only.” Tony turned to him and winked.

“ _Your_ one and only?”

He shrugged nonchalantly to hide the nerves that began to build upon his Freudian slip. “I could’ve said ‘the’ one and only, but this conversation is just between me and you, hence ‘my’.”

“Sounds rather possessive.” Steve couldn’t help but smirk. Maybe he enjoyed the banter a little too much.

“What can I say? I’m not good with sharing.”

There was a unified chuckle between the two, rubbing shoulders as they walked – their proximity being much closer than before. It was peaceful, despite the smoke around them, knowing for well they’d clean this city up like they’d done countless times before, just as soon as they found the rest of their team to help out. Together, they walked in tandem, turning around one of the many corners the city had with Steve until he spotted it—

Steve’s azure orbs did exactly the same as Tony’s light browns did; they widened, stretched open as they caught sight of the mansion. Tony’s slow pace switched to a sprint as he darted toward the gates, his hands wrapping around the signature gold they were painted with. He pulled away from Steve at that single moment, just to stare in pure horror at the Avengers mansion that was still ablaze. Dark smoke flew from the rooftop, shards of glass were scattered across the lawn, bricks that once built the mansion were now piles of broken slabs.

All of Tony’s work with the Avengers was now blown to smithereens.

“No…” he whispered, pushing the gate open and running into the courtyard, staring at what was around him. He decided to go with his gut, as twisted as it was at that very second, and ran inside.

“Tony!” Steve called after him, struggling to run with the weight on his legs, but managing a firm, heavy footed jog inside, immediately covering his mouth to shield himself from the smoke. It was devastating to see what was once his home now collapsed and broken with nothing left.

His head went from side to side, trying to spot the billionaire – he caught him running into one room that was always locked that had piqued Steve’s curiosity once or twice. Quickly he followed, only to be bombarded by smoke again, coughing loudly as it flew into his face.

As he managed to push past the smoke and remaining flames he saw Tony standing there in a room full of now broken and destroyed Captain America memorabilia, quickly Tony grabbed something which he crumpled and shoved into his pocket before dashing out and grabbing Steve’s shoulders. “Cap, you need to… You need to get to the lab, I have something to do here- go, quickly, you know my password!”

Steve, as flustered as he was, nodded, glad that Tony knew what the priority was and found himself making his way down to Tony’s lab.

He came to the steel clad doors and shouted the password, “Captain America!” To which the doors slid open. As expected the lab had been totalled. The explosion had obviously come from just underneath it, leaving it in ruins asides from a few remaining machines.

There was loud creaking when he stepped foot in the metal cave, darting toward the communication beacon that was smack bam in the middle of the room, typing a few details into it quickly and dialling for the Avengers.

“Team? Avengers? Anyone?!”

Nothing but static; a noise that Steve was growing infuriated with.

“Team?! This is Cap here, calling out for anyone – respond!”

More static and then a muffled “Captain” echoed around him.

“T’Challa? Is that you?” His eyes lit with a glimpse of relief.

“Yes, Captain, I am here having rounded up the civilians from the City, we’re just offshore in numerous boats. War Machine has assisted me in evacuating citizens using jets to a nearby heliport, SHIELD are also assisting us using the carrier. What are your whereabouts?”

“Currently in the mansion, not got much time by the sounds of the connection. Have you managed to get in touch with the others?”

“No, not as of yet.”

“If you do, tell ‘em we need to assemble, Central Park, as soon as possible.”

“Understood.”

And with that the connection was cut, just as Steve had anticipated. At least he had managed to convey a message, but he had to try the others, going through the radar and radio systems and attempting to fiddle with the wires to recalibrate the signal tune to another teammate’s radio.

“Anyone hear me?”

No luck.

He was distracted with the radio, so much so that Steve didn’t notice when the ceiling began to collapse, a huge flaming chunk falling in front of the door. The loud thud jolted his attention to focus and he ran toward the exit – but it was too late, he was locked inside, surrounded by fire.

There was no way out now.


	11. Chapter 11

Tony was trying to recover as much as he could, running from the courtyard to that special room, grabbing everything he’d held from his childhood and transferring it outside including a vintage Captain America shield and ensuring that it was safe for Steve to use to replace his damaged one. Tony Stark was by no means a sentimental man, but when it came to that room in particular, it just contradicted his nature entirely.  Some of the items in that room had been in his collection since he was years old, and there was no way he was letting them go now. He’d also managed to find a few parts to use later. Like he said, he’d upgrade their bionics (he was still resentful that he was using something of Hammer’s).

Just as he was carrying a box outside and had placed it on the lawn, his arm began to seize up. Suddenly a jolt of pain surged throughout his body starting from his arm and coursing its way up his shoulder, causing him to blink a couple of times. When he did blink he managed to see images – strange images being relayed to him. He could see fire, chunks of the ceiling collapsing on the ground, and then a blurry image of a door. With those hazy images beginning to compile themselves in his mind, he realised where exactly it was; the lower laboratory. The rush of panic that lingered in his system from the images almost resembled fear. He had to shake off whatever emotion he’d felt for that moment and take those flashes as a warning of some sort, following his gut and running back inside and toward the lab. If those images were right, the door would have been blocked so he tapped the wall next to the door and drew his bionic arm back. With a powerful thrust forward he punched the wall, repeating the motion until the wall crumbled.  Along with the power he’d put into that punch he ended up tumbling in amongst the pile of broken bricks, low and behold he fell right next to the door that was blocked by a burning chunk of metal, wood and other components that once formed the ceiling above, along with the wires that lined the ceiling. Electrical fires were always a risk; if those dangling wires caught fire then they could snake up into the entire electrical system.

Tony spotted Steve surrounded by fire in the centre of the room.

“Steve!” he called out.

“Tony!”

“I’ll get you out of here!” Tony reassured him, while Steve was trapped in a circle of flames Tony had to find some way to form a bridge over them. He glanced back at his other suits, but they were surrounded by flames and rubble too, and it wouldn’t surprise him if the entire internal system was down. It must have been if the sprinklers weren’t working and JARVIS wasn’t responding.

It was either Steve or the suits, and the answer was without a doubt…

**It would always be Steve.**

Tony picked up a relatively large slab of concrete that had fallen from the ceiling and with the help of his enhanced arm, he had managed to use that to create a bridge – he then had to repeat, grabbing more and more slabs, anything he could find that wouldn’t catch fire and threw them on top of the other, forming a small path.

Steve ran over the strip that was made, straight to Tony’s side and grabbed him, pulling him out of the way as the ceiling collapsed just where he was standing.

“That was a close one!” Steve shouted over the flames, pulling Tony out from the exit he had made. Tony followed, hand grasping Steve’s tightly as they took to leaving the mansion.

The second they were outside, the flames burst from the inside out, taking over large portions of the building. Tony’s eyes were lit with horror as he watched his heart and soul become engulfed in flames; all of his suits, all of his hard work, all of the memories of the team – all gone. It was difficult for him not to well up at the sight of it.

Luckily, he’d managed to save one of his prized possessions, and he stooped down to pick up an old Captain America comic book, one of the first he’d ever gotten, one of the only things that Howard had ever allowed him to keep without saying it was too childish.

Steve was trying to catch his breath after realising that running with his new pair of legs wasn’t as easy as it had looked, despite the ‘training’ he’d had with Tony whilst getting to the mansion. He turned around to see Tony holding something that appeared crumpled in his hand, and decided to take a gander. As he looked closer he saw the words ‘Captain America’ written all over it. He smiled softly and tugged Tony into his arms, hugging him tightly.

Tony’s light brown eyes lightened at first, before he relaxed into the firm embrace, leaning into Steve’s body by pure instinct. He needed that comfort and Steve was providing just that. If he leaned any closer, he was sure he could feel Steve’s heartbeat press against his chest, he daringly did so. He moved closer, their chests touching, his chin brushing against Steve’s shoulder whilst his unoccupied hand rose, fingertips nestling into Steve’s pristine clean shirt.

The embrace was tender and heartfelt, and for once in a long time Tony had genuinely felt safe.

Tony was just pulling back, the distance between them starting to form when Steve pulled him closer, placing a gentle peck over the other’s red lips. Tony’s heart fluttered and he gazed up at Steve, who returned nothing but a soft stare.

“Steve…”

“Thank you, Tony. I should’ve said it a lot sooner, but thanks to you I’m walking, thanks to you I’m here, right now.”

Again, they hugged, this time it was Tony who pressed himself forward and wrapped both arms around him tightly, though struggled to get his arms all the way around Steve’s much larger frame.

“Come on Shellhead; let’s go get the team together. T’Challa’s sent out a signal, we’re going to assemble.”

Tony nodded and tucked the comic book into his back pocket, stepping away from the gates but locking them. At least everything in the front yard would be safe for now, he hoped.

“Our home… That was our home, Steve.” He gestured to the rubble, eyes starting to well up at the sight, quickly however his hand raised and swiped the tears before they had a chance to roll down his cheeks.

Steve sympathised and gave Tony a comforting stare that spoke far louder than actions and was enough to stop any more tears. “I know. You gave me a home, Tony. And I trust with all my heart that you’ll be able to build something better, something bigger and something for us all. This time, it’ll be better.”

“Better? How? That place was perfect, I’m not bragging or anything but you know…”

“It’ll be better. You know why?”

Tony’s eyebrow quirked. “Why..?”

“Because we’ll work on it together.”

Tony lifted the shield that he had saved, dusting it off and handing it to Steve to strap to his back. Steve happily did so, adjusting the straps to fit and then turning his attention back to Tony. 

“I… Like the sound of that.” The billionaires expression lit up at the last word, lacing his fingers with Steve and finally turning their backs.

Together they walked hand in hand, walking away as the mansion, their home, burned to ashes with every step they took away from it. But all that mattered in that moment was that they were _together_.  

 


	12. Chapter 12

“So, about that room…”

Now, that was a conversation starter. Tony had kept that particular room locked and sealed for a good reason. Firstly he didn’t want to fuel Steve’s ego, and secondly he didn’t want the others finding out about his fascination with Captain America, though Pepper made it clear once or twice that he was making it extremely apparent. It didn’t help when he had brought the holo-shield prototype into a boardroom meeting and kept fiddling with it when there was important business to be discussed. Tony Stark was, and always would be, the world’s biggest Captain America fan-boy.

“What about it?” Tony replied innocently, casually.

Steve shot Tony a typical eye roll, expecting him to finally spill the truth. “Is that what you were hiding from us?”

Tony decided to distance himself just a fraction, though there was only so much he could pull away considering he didn’t want to break the hand-hold he had going with Steve while they were walking to meet the others. “Maybe.”

“Filled with my stuff, huh?”

It was obvious to Tony that Steve was going to keep poking at this until he was given answers. Instead of telling him right away, Tony sighed deeply and shrugged, trying to play innocent. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Come on, now…” Steve pried more sternly.

His eyes went to Steve, then away, then back to him. “Fine! Yes, it’s filled with your things. But not your things, per say… They were collectables. My father started this, okay? It wasn’t like a huge room though. It was smaller, a little collection of things that he treasured and there were tonnes of Cap memorabilia, so I decided to carry that on and… It sort of went out of control.” Tony’s free hand scrubbed through the back of his hair, flicking his head to get the two strands of hair that would always fall in front of his eyes away.  “I still… Collect some things… Maybe.”

The admission made Steve’s heart melt and, instinctively, he pulled Tony closer while they stepped in tandem through the empty and barren streets. “And what about those comics you risked your life for?”

“Those? Long story.”

“Tony…” Steve nudged him.

He wasn’t going to lie, he loved when Steve paid attention to him like that, and adored when Steve wanted to learn more about him. It seemed as though sometimes that he knew the ins and outs of Steve, and was far more interested in him than Steve was in him, but it was the moments like this that became more frequent as of recent that would prove to him that Steve was learning more about him too, as guarded as he saw himself as.

“When I was a kid, my old man used to criticize everything I did, but one thing he would allow me to do that was somewhat childish was to collect these Cap comics. It was my first ever comic book, actually. I used to watch the cartoon too, I mean, come on… Who _didn’t_ watch it? So yeah… I kept these all throughout high school and college, kept them all of my life. Consider them a lucky charm of some sort.”

Steve brought Tony closer. There was something about what he had just said to him that made his heart flutter in return, he could feel it drum quickly, and rather than kissing him right away, he pressed the tip of his nose to the shell of Tony’s ear.

“You know you don’t need those, you’ve got the real deal with you now. And I’m not exactly like I am in the comics.”

“I know… You’re better.”

Steve moved to block Tony from walking further, standing in front of him and pulling him into a deep, tender kiss with his hand placed just under his sharp goatee, raising it to allow his lips to press against Tony’s. After that brief moment, he returned to Tony’s side and continued to guide him onward. “You’ll have to start your collection all over again.”

“I know…” Tony sighed heavily, his head lowering with distain. “I saved as much as I could, but we’ll see how much actually survives when we’re back.”

“You know, the idea of a tribute room… It’s flattering.”

Tony gave Steve a nudge again, his mood lifting. “Does that mean you’re going to build one for me? You’re an Iron Man fan, clearly. Don’t think I didn’t see those Iron Man boxers in the laundry room back in the mansion.”

“Hold on.” Steve held up his finger, waggling it at Tony. “Don’t get any ideas. And since when have you actually ventured into the laundry room? You’re the guy who just dumps it in your lab and gets your bots to clean it up.”

“Hey! I’m offended! I do go down there from time to time… To supervise. I’m fussy; I need my underwear to be super soft. I have sensitive skin!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Steve gave Tony a playful shove, and it was met by the dark haired man wrapping both arms around Steve’s huge bicep which did take both arms to wrap around to finally catch a comfortable grip, pressing his cheek against the round of his shoulder.

“Feel it.”

“Feel What?”

“Feel it, Steve!”

“Tony, for God’s sakes.”

“Touch it, see? Baby soft.”

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed. It was hard to stay serious even if he was surrounded by the city looking post-apocalyptic, with Tony acting like a cat next to him. The mood seemed to shift after their kiss, Tony seemed much lighter hearted, but Steve had to be sure to veer him on the right path. All that talk about soft skin made Steve’s imagination wonder. It was no surprise that even the young Captain had fantasies of his own and often drifted into dreams, but he shook himself out of it and carried on walking.

“Yeah, soft, you’ll have to show me the secret to that when we get back. For now, let’s focus on finding the others, shall we?”

Tony nodded and pulled back, releasing Steve’s arm from his clutches and instead walking side by side with him.

The walk to the park wasn’t too far with the long, quick strides they were taking, although they were distracted by a sudden thud from one of the taller office complexes that they were walking by. Both Steve and Tony turned as quickly as they could, running toward the building. Steve was clearly becoming more confident on his new legs, managing to actually jog past Tony as they neared the huge complex.


	13. Chapter 13

As they ran toward the building, there was a loud smash and Whirlwind, one of the villains that they had tackled before, came crashing out of one of the higher windows, thudding on the pavement beside them, still steaming from a blast that had come his way. Following the fallen villain was the sound of buzzing, and before they knew it, Jan appeared in front of them – returning to her normal size and standing in front of the two with her eyes red with tears.

“Janet? What happened?” Tony quickly asked, her and Steve both placing a hand on her shoulders.

She raised her gloved hand, brushing away a few tears and then shook her head, biting down on her lower lip. Hank’s was hurt and she didn’t know if she had much longer with him, the worry she had channelled into fighting Whirlwind was now just piling up with her outlet now taken care of. “I had to take care of him… Where were you two?!”

“We were taking down Hammer, turns out he’s not alone. He’s got The Purple Man with him…” Tony replied solemnly. “We’re going to take them both down; they’re working on something big.”

“They’re working on a device that’ll allow the Purple Man to take the whole world under his control. Tony was under his power again, by the time he came-to they’d managed to escape,” Steve chimed in.

“We ran into a few hiccups along the way.” Tony flexed out his temporary arm, “I wanted to replace _some parts_ when we had reached the mansion, but it had turned out that the materials he wanted were in the basement, and collapsed along with the mansion under the flames of an explosion set there. Hammer’s planted bombs along the city, by the looks of this building, it’s been hit too.”

Janet gasped when she noticed Tony’s arm, her hand rising to cover her mouth in horror, even more so when she scanned Steve and noticed his legs too – it was then she knew it was serious. When Steve Rogers was taken down, she knew in her mind that the situation was dire. Then again, she was still getting over her own loss-

“Hank… He’s seriously hurt; I honestly don’t think he’s going to make it. There was a huge explosion, Whirlwind managed to get some distance but we were stuck in it—and he-- ”

“We’ll make sure he gets out of here, come on.” Steve gestured, running in with reckless abandon. Clearly, the incident with his legs had more of an impact on him than he allowed the others to see, but Tony noticed it and made a mental note to address it later. For now, he followed Steve with Janet shrinking her size and zooming in to lead the way down the corridors.  

It was like going through a maze, which was a reminder to Steve as to why he didn’t exactly like corporate buildings. Eventually, they reached the fire escape, then down the stairs. There Hank was, on the ground, unconscious and bleeding out. Janet had clearly tried to make a makeshift bandage for him with torn rags from her clothing, wrapped around him tightly.

“I’ve managed to take care of Whirlwind, I just need to get him out of here.”

“We’ve got it.” Steve replied, gently scooping Hank up into his arms.

“Come on, Cap! This isn’t an ideal level to be on.” Tony gestured to what was surrounding him. What had once been a neat office was destroyed and covered in a thick black char with a huge crater in the centre of the room. Tony was on his way out when he was blasted to the side, slamming into a broken wall by the villain that they had thought was taken care of. Whirlwind stood, barely, in his battle-worn green armour.

The second that Tony was thrown against the wall, Steve winced, feeling a pain rise up his legs and up his calves, feet jittering and trying to inch their way toward Tony. It was as though he felt Tony’s pain, but he didn’t know how that could be possible.

Tony pushed himself up slowly only to see Janet blasting Whirlwind back with her stings. She was fuelled by the passion to get Hank out of there, and was clearly fatigued from fighting for so long, but regardless, she continued to throttle the clearly possessed villain until he collapsed again.

“Don’t they learn when you throw them out of windows?” She sighed, exhausted as she returned to her normal size. She was just too exhausted to carry on and nearly fell. Tony pushed himself up and grabbed her, pulling her arm around his neck.

“Come on Jan, let’s get you out of here. You’ve been fighting for hours now…”

“This stupid radio stopped working Tony, since when have you started making shoddy tech?” She frowned, leaning on him as he helped her get out of there with Steve following close behind with Hank draped in his arms.

Tony glared just for a second and mumbled to himself, “My tech isn’t shoddy.”

They exited as quickly as they could. Now that they were out in the open, Steve placed Hank down on the ground and began examining him, Tony did the same when Janet was sat down on the sidewalk. “We’ll get you fixed up. Hold on.” Tony dashed away from them for a moment to run into a nearby grocery store, grabbing a few bottles of water, bandages and granola bars and then writing a huge “I.O.U – Tony Stark.” On a lotto ticket that was resting on the counter before running back out and joining the others, handing Janet a bottle with one of the bars while tearing open the wrapper with his teeth and taking a huge chomp of the bar he was holding. Janet stared with worry and concern over Hank as Steve caught the bandages that Tony tossed to him, wrapping Hank’s multiple wounds up. The shrapnel from the bomb had done quite a lot of damage, but it wasn’t life threatening now that it was all wrapped up.

“We’re going to meet the others in Central Park, well, those who have radio contact,” he explained before Tony shoved the bar of food in front of him. Without so much as glancing up at Tony to question it, he bit down on the half chewed bar, needing the food more than he thought he did.

“I’ll help round the others up,” Janet volunteered, eyeing the two and trying not to smirk to herself, but instead just whispered a firm ‘finally’.

“What?” Steve and Tony both asked in sync as they stared up at Janet, with Steve getting Hank into his arms again, ensuring he was cradled comfortably.

“Noooothing. But yes, how about I do a round-up and meet you in the park?” she replied

“We can’t lose contact again, Jan…” Steve replied.

“If I don’t meet you there in let’s say an hour, then send out a search party. I’ll just do a quick check, Steve.”

Tony tapped his chin and gestured her to come closer with the broken radio, opening it up and fiddling with the circuitry. “Now this won’t function as a radio since the transistor is fried, but I can fix it up so it’ll send out a distress signal. Which, in theory, our radios should pick up.”

“In theory.” Jan tilted her head.

“Hey, have some faith. It’ll work, trust me on this.” He placed the radio back into her hands safely. “If anything happens just press that button.”

“Got it. I’m recharged anyway, have faith in me boys, I’ve managed to handle Whirlwind on my own.” She flicked the top of Tony’s head and pat Steve’s arm before heading off, shrinking her size again and buzzing into the distance. Tony and Steve were both worried for her. It wasn’t as if they’d spent a long time outdoors resting to regain their energy, but it put Steve at slight ease when Tony had fixed some sort of distress system, meaning hopefully they wouldn’t be separated for long. There was strength in numbers, and Steve needed to make sure that there were no extreme casualties like Hank – who was clearly unable to join them in the fight against Hammer until he recovered.

“Enough dillydallying Tony, let’s get going.”

“Did you really say dillydally? Like honestly? That sounds something out of an awful show from the 40’s.”

“Shut up, Stark.”

It was time to get to park.

It was time to **assemble**.


	14. Chapter 14

Central Park was finally in sight. Tony was leading the way, offering from time to time to carry Hank, but Steve knew that offer was just in good will. It was worry dictating their sprint toward the gates; luckily the park hadn’t been struck by any of the explosions, and still maintained the fresh and clean atmosphere even as surrounded by chaos as it was.

There were figures standing all clustered amongst themselves, and both Steve and Tony’s hearts lit with glee and renewed hope. The Avengers were, and always would be, the light in even the darkest situations. As they neared, step-by-step, the images of their friends became clear; Thor, Vision, Carol and Clint stood by the others, twiddling with the tips of one of his arrows, and it wasn’t long before Janet flew up to them right on cue with Natasha leaping gracefully over the building tops, and finally into the park. They all looked worse for wear, having fought their respective villain and all with clear burn holes and singes on their uniforms, which were yet another clear indication that they’d all been caught blasts.

Tony could’ve practically leapt into Thor’s burly arms at that point, he was so glad to see that no one was injured severely. Instead, his pace only quickened until he was by their side, hanging his head after exhaling a deep sigh of relief filled with pent up emotion.

“Buddy,” Tony greeted the big blond Asgardian. Reaching out, he clapped his hand on his friend’s shoulder and pat with a gleeful smirk plastered over his face.

“Man of Iron,” Thor replied with a hefty slap to Tony’s back. Tony’s eyes screwed up at the power, biting the bullet and trying to smile despite the tiny twitches of his lips to hide a grimace. “You appear a mess.” Carol was clearly trying not to laugh at Thor’s lack of tact as she neared Steve, kneeling down over Hank as soon as he placed him down on the soft grass.

“Thanks for beating around the bush…” Tony shrugged, gesturing to his arm. “You know it’s gotten bad when I’m resorting to using Hammer’s tech.”

Natasha brushed her shoulders off, turning to face Tony and Steve properly. “Janet told me… I’ll fill the others in.” There was a sympathy about her voice when she caught sight of Steve’s legs with her own two eyes. It was different hearing about it, but seeing it in person just didn’t sit right. Nonetheless, she signalled a nod at the others, and they too replied with an understanding stare. Everyone knew Steve by this point and knew that he wouldn’t want to talk about what had happened to him when they had other concerns.

“Where are the others?” Steve asked while Vision floated toward Hank, lifting him into his arms and performing a scan.

“Back with T’Challa, safe. There are boats and a nearby safe-house just by the state borders,” Carol said. “They were injured, so you have us helping you out now, Cap.”

“And it looks like we’re going to lose one more.” Clint gestured to Hank by tipping his bow toward him.

“I will return him to one of the safe houses for a thorough medical analysis.” Vision replied with the calm, cool, and collected manner that always surrounded him.

“That sounds best, so it’ll just have to be us. Who do we have? Carol, Natasha, Thor, Clint, Janet, Steve and of course… Moi.” Tony puffed out his chest proudly as he tried to take control of the situation in the way that Steve would. “So you return to the others, Vision, tell them where we are.”

“And… What exactly are we planning to do?” Clint asked. “You haven’t told us jack, Iron Man.”

Steve was trying hard not to place his face in his hand at Tony’s show of bravado.

Tony cleared his throat to regain his leader-like posture and composure. “We’re heading to Hammer’s main building, that’s probably where they’ll be. It’s not far from here. If he’s got a similar set-up to the factory we first fought him out he’ll be there with a boat load of drones. So we’ll need all the power we can get.”

“Drones, you say?”

“Well, yeah, considering that the first line of defence that Killgrave and Hammer had was the villains they pit us against, their second line will be those drones, and then once those are taken care of we’ll be able to take them out, fair and square.”

“Sending Vision back isn’t the wisest of choices if we’re dealing with Killgrave…” Steve thought aloud.

“It’ll have to do; we need Thor’s strength and Carol’s power too,” Tony justified his choice.

“Right, let’s get going everyone. How are we doing on rest?”

“Rested up Cap, we were actually looking for you and Stark,” Carol replied.

Janet giggled to herself. “They were doing their own thing… Together.”

Clint asked, trying to lean closer to Janet to get the gossip. “Huh?”

“Pretty sure those two finally sorted things out, all the tension seems… Well, it’s dissipated and they look happier.”

“Let’s get going.” Steve gestured as he began walking with Tony. “The more time we waste here, the more likely Killgrave is to get the upper-hand, especially if he’s got Hammer helping him.”

Janet smirked at the others before shrinking again and flying up to Steve, sitting on his shoulder while he and Tony led the way. She wanted to spill the beans, but she’d let the two heroes do that themselves, even though the rest of the team knew from day one that they would hit it off. Their history was unparalleled, and they had become the backbones of the team. Janet was proud to call them her teammates.

“Assemble!” Tony shouted proudly and confidently, waving his cybernetic arm in the air.


	15. Chapter 15

Dark clouds swirled and loomed over one of the tallest buildings in New York City, the dark purple that they were tinged with growing darker closer to the building.  It certainly was a sight in itself to take in, with the shades of purple creating some sort of organised gradient. But luckily this allowed the others to spot where the main building was without a single doubt in their mind. The Mind Prism inside must have been creating the weather that had managed to span the entirety of the city.

“That doesn’t look fishy at all,” Clint remarked as they stood at the foot of the ominously tall building.

“It’s got a huge lightning rod attached, must be new.” Carol gestured to the tall peak of the building.

“Must be to power the device Hammer’s helping Killgrave build.” Steve stood by, curling his fingers and signalling for the others to sidle against the wall. He made sure that he took the front so he could peer around the corner and gauge the patrol patterns of the bots. Luckily AI were more predictable and had a set pattern and routine, and it took him a matter of minutes to figure out what their patterns were.

Two to the left entrance, five to the right, six in the middle that would rotate every two minutes and walk in a circle – Having figured out the pattern, he turned to whisper it.

Clint was told to run back and snipe from a nearby building, so it was Steve’s duty to sign to him what exactly he’d seen from his current position and he did so with his hands, hoping that Clint had managed to catch it.

An arrow shot out, landing right in the centre of the 6-bot patrol. Without hesitation, the bots turned and honed in on the arrow. Alarm bells sounded while the arrow ticked once, then ticked twice, before beeping, and then-

**BOOM!**

The arrow exploded and that was Natasha’s cue to leap out, shooting at the bots that were closer to the left-hand side where the others were. She shot with extreme precision and skill, aiming straight for the back of the neck of the bots. She was smart and poised enough to go for exact shots, not wasting her already limited ammo, taking them down with a single shot, and making it look effortless.

It was Carol’s turn – she soared out, her hands lighting up as she ploughed through the rest of the oncoming bots, and then took to the sky, zooming straight up toward the lightening rod that was positioned at the top of the building.

Janet flew in, and used her stinger, throwing all she had at the bots that were beginning to cluster in the foyer, using her size to float behind them and aim for their circuit board.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a wasp!”

Then it was Tony and Steve’s turn, with Tony using his makeshift repulsor and blasting any few drones that were missed. Steve decided to take a leaf out of all of the kickboxing training he’d done in the past, and use the strength and force of his newly acquired metal legs while he chose to throw a number of kicks at the bots, whipping out his shield that they’d retrieved from the mansion ruins, and spinning it out to decapitate the bots that flew his way angrily.

“Got this one!” Tony shouted at a bot coming Steve’s way. With a powerful punch landed square on the bots metaphorical nose, it crashed to the ground.

“I’ve got that one!” Steve called back, kicking down a drone mid-flight that was ready to strike Tony, and sending it right into the marble floor they were standing on.

Tony peered over his shoulder. “Thanks, Cap!”

“Don’t mention it, Shellhead.” Steve shot Tony a thumbs-up. “Everyone, keep moving forward! How’s Carol doing up there?” Steve held his hand to his ear piece; the short distance communication device that Tony had fashioned their old radios into given the electrical systems were disrupted by the storm that loomed above them.

“Just fine!” Thor replied in a booming voice over the radio that could’ve possibly deafened Steve. He was busy covering Carol, and ensuring that the canons and drones that flew up toward her were being taken care of, while she was doing her fair share of machine throttling. Cap made a mental note to turn down the volume whenever he was talking to Thor and led the others forward.

As he was running, his legs began to stiffen, and he had to slow down. His body was being weighed down and his new legs certainly weren’t co-operating, realising now more than ever that it was taking so much sheer energy to move onward. The slow-down was noticed by Tony just before he grabbed Steve’s hand and tugged him to give him more momentum to carry his heavy metal legs. “Come on, Steve!”

Steve’s expression lifted as Tony pulled him, glad that he could rely on the man that was now guiding the team. Natasha and Janet were just behind them shooting the bots that charged at them from behind. It wasn’t long until they reached the main hall where before they could even open the door, and a sea of drones swarmed out and crashed through the walls.

“Keep running!” Steve shouted, hoping to find the main lab soon by darting into the elevator and leading the others there. Tony grabbed the doors and slammed them closed.

For a brief second there was relief while all four of them stood in the enclosed space, the soft hum of peaceful elevator music filling their ears and making a distinct change from the sound of rapid-fire coming their way. Tony allowed the breath that he was holding all that time to escape.

“The second we get out of here we’re going to be surrounded.” Natasha sighed, replacing the magazine in her pistol.

“At least this is a short cut to the top floor which I assume they’re hiding in.” Tony said.

“I did some scouting before we got here when I was trying to find the others, they’re definitely all stationed in the top floor labs,” Janet breathed, tucking her short hair neatly behind her ears while she moved to sit on Tony’s shoulder instead, just for the time being.

“Long journey up…” Natasha replied, staring out of the glass windows and watching as the city began to get smaller and smaller, the shrinking buildings and the even tinier blips that were the drones outside along with tiny explosions where Clint was clearly taking care of the drones.

“Tell me about it.” Tony replied, flexing out his arm and looking at Steve, shifting a little closer to him. “Do you… Feel that?”

“Hm?”

“When we’re fighting, do you feel different with these?”

“Definitely… It’s like we’re…”

“Connected.” They both said in unison.

Natasha rolled her eyes, knowing that it there was much more between them as the rest of the team did, finding it amusing that they had taken this long to work it out between them while Janet leaned closer with interest, trying to hear more about the two.

“You boys have always been connected; it doesn’t take any machinery to enhance that,” she said, swinging her feet in contentment.  

Both Tony and Steve turned their heads away, attempting to hide a faint blush that tainted both of their cheeks. Natasha cleared her throat and gestured to the elevator numbers that were flashing, meaning that they were quickly approaching the top floor.

“Now, if you’re done, boys…”

“You two ready to cover us?” Tony asked, tapping his reactor and then listening to the light charging noise that was made through the interconnecting wire between the mechanical arm and his reactor.

“As we’ll ever be,” Jan replied, hovering next to Natasha and pointing her wrist mounted stingers at the door.

Natasha fastened her gun and unlatched the safety, aiming just over Steve and Tony’s shoulders.

“Ready.”

There it was, the final _PING_ as they reached the top floor. The weighted silver doors opened and in front of them was the hoard of bots they were expecting, geared and ready to open fire.  Arrows shot through the window, firing and picking off a couple of bots – Clint was doing his work well.

Steve clasped his shield on his arm, bringing Jan, Natasha and Tony closer. He thrust it out at the bots, ducking under for cover while Jan and Natasha used the space to fire at the hoard.

“You two, go on! We’ll cover you!” Janet yelled.

Tony and Steve nodded, shooting and slamming anything that came near them, creating a path for Janet and Natasha to follow, approaching the huge metal doors that belonged to the upper lab.

Steve and Tony inched forward, Tony slamming the right door open with a punch, while Steve kicked the left door open and both practically fell inside with the power that they had used. The sirens above only intensified, and as they both turned to look at Janet and Natasha behind them, the doors were blocked by bars that flew down from the top frame of the door.

They were trapped inside.


	16. Chapter 16

The loud pang of bars hitting the ground forced both Steve and Tony to jump to their feet, spinning around to see that their one entrance and exit was now blocked off.

Steve tapped his radio. “Carol, we’re trapped in lab upstairs, Janet and Natasha are outside – make sure they’re safe. I’m sure Clint’s got their back.”

“Got it Cap, we’ll get you out of there, too.”

“I can’t seem to find a window…” Thor shouted from the distance.

As soon as it was said, Steve realised that Thor was right, there wasn’t a window in sight. This entire room was blocked off and sealed in like some sort of metal container. Now they were surrounded by nothing but artificial light, again lit with that indigo hue that resembled that of the factory right at the start of this whole mess. Tony cringed at the memory, and Steve could feel Tony’s apprehension, his hand rising to rest on Tony’s shoulder to reassure him that he was there this time without words needed.

Tony felt his hammering heart rest a little when Steve held him like that, both of them creeping forward and trying to stay as quiet as they could, even though for Steve it was extremely difficult given the weight of his feet. Trying his best to stay quiet, he leaned forward, shield resting on his arm as a precaution. Neither of them were sure what would leap out at them, instead as they turned the corner behind a huge clunky machine with HAMMER branded all over it, they caught sight of the huge machine with Killgrave standing in the middle. There were schematics that were plastered on the table in front of them that were clearly marked ‘PROPERTY OF VICTOR VON DOOM’. Someone had clearly stolen from Latviera and Doom mustn’t be happy about that. But for now they had to focus on themselves.

But where was Hammer?

Suddenly, a large suit of armour stood up just behind them and reached for Tony’s head, but Steve couldn’t and wouldn’t let that happen. With all of his might, he swung his shield, knocking the arm back and then throwing himself at the huge bot. It was clear that Hammer had tried to mimic the Hulkbuster with the huge, clunky design.

“You rats think you could get in here? I thought we managed to get pest control on you already!” he taunted in his slimy, snarky voice that forced the hairs on the back of Tony’s neck to stand.

“Killgrave! Get these guys will, ya?”

No response.

“Killgrave? Hey? Purple man?”

Steve grit his teeth and kicked Hammer down with a mighty thud, but Hammer didn’t stay down for long. Rocket turrets popped up from the side panel of his forearms, and he began blasting at the two.

“By the way, that pest control thing, it made no sense at all.” Tony remarked, firing his repulsor with quick speed at the missiles that came his way.

Hammer dodged to the side, finally standing in the huge suit as he placed the defence up. “You know, I thought that together we worked well, when you were my lapdog.” He snorted before charging at Steve and Tony in a swift bull-like run. Steve shoved Tony out of the way, and met the charge with the surface of his shield, pushing back as hard as he could. He grit his teeth tightly, heels digging into the ground below.

“Tony!” he yelled.

“Got it!” Tony repulsored Hammer back, and then had to stop to recharge. His makeshift repulsor only had so much juice, and it was sapping it right out of Tony’s chest. It made the billionaire short of breath, forcing him to stop and gather his energy.

Neither of them were a match for Hammer and Killgrave on their own, but together they were strong and mighty, especially with the help of the others who were ensuring that no more drones slipped in and cornered them.

The metal suit sizzled and cracked off. That was one arm taken care of, but Hammer was a man of many tricks and began shooting lasers at the two, flailing his hand around with a faulty sense of accuracy. It made it harder to predict a man who clearly had no idea what he was doing, and Tony hid behind Steve’s shield, waiting for his repulsor to recharge and giving the Captain the nod to surge forward, throwing his entire weight into a brutal drop-kick.

Steve’s legs were now one of his most powerful assets, and he would use them to their fullest capabilities.

Hammer staggered back with an undignified, “WOA-OA-OAH!”

Then it was Tony’s time to shine as he jumped over Steve’s shoulders, aiming his repulsor to the centre of the machine, and then firing with a forceful beam.

Hammer’s armour collapsed and fell apart, but that came as no surprise to the duo that stood side-by-side, staring down at the mess of a machine.

“Killgrave! Come on, take Stark back!”

Again, no reply.

“Killgrave?”

“Oh shut up, Hammer, I am done with your whining…” Killgrave spoke from the centre of the machine.

“What?” Hammer’s eyes shot wide open and he scrambled to his feet, trying to shed himself of the broken, heavy suit parts.

“Silence! I need to focus for this to work.”

“W-what?! No, you- you said we’d be in this together!”

“I lied.”

“No!” Hammer screamed, eyes wide in panic behind his shattered lenses.  

Killgrave should have never been trusted, and it was obvious from day one that Hammer would be nothing more than a pawn in his game of chess.

Steve and Tony casually stepped closer to Hammer, even though the man was backing into one of his machines.

Steve bowed his head to Tony and courteously gestured to him. “After you, Mr. Stark.”

“Why, thank you, Captain.” Tony smirked back at him, winding up his bionic arm.

“W-wait, stop! I’ll be on your side, we’ll take him out together!” Hammer’s poor plea bargain chimed.

“Justin, tell me what it’s like to be knocked out by your own tech.”

Hammer held his hands up, palms toward the two giants that stood above him, with their heroic stature and lack of light shadowing their ominous expressions. “Huh? Th-that’s mine?”

“With improvements, of course. You can thank me later,” Tony beamed before delivering the knockout punch, sending the frail, evil genius to the ground. “The great thing about these is that my hand doesn’t hurt at all after that. I would’a thought hitting something as bony would’ve, but no. Great, right?”

Steve huffed and diverted his attention toward Killgrave, running to the machine.


	17. Chapter 17

With Hammer down, it was time to deal with the puppeteer himself. The machine was huge, a mix of purple with purple crystals decorating the outside, and a range of wires all linked to the helmet that The Purple Man was donning. He stood with his arms out, head tilted back and glowing sparks of purple flying from his body.

“Now that Hammer is out of the way, that’s just one less annoyance for me to deal with…”

“You’re going down, pal, I won’t let you two stand after what you did to Tony!” Steve shouted with conviction.

“Oh, what I’m going to do will be worse…” He held out his hands and pointed them toward the two. Steve was known for his willpower and the Purple Man’s abilities not being able to work on him because of it, but he felt a haze falling over his mind as he dropped to his knees, with Tony doing the same beside him.

“I’ll be able to take over the both of you! And soon, the entire world will be my slaves!”

Tony winced, crying out as he tried over and over to fight whatever this was invading his mind. It felt like before, like that dark power slowly dragging him into the abyss again, he had to fight it, he needed to.

Steve had never felt anything like this before. It was taking him to a dark place, pulling him back into his darkest and most tragic memories back in the war. His body quaked, trying to fight it. His trance was blurred when he heard Tony yelp out in pain, his hand inching over, slowly toward Tony’s and grabbing it as tightly as he could. His fingers trailed along Tony’s calloused hand, along his knuckles. “We… Can do this… Fight it, Tony!”

“Steve…” Tony whimpered.

_Pain, suffering, torture, death…_

“Fight… it!”

Killgrave laughed. “Soon your friends will walk in here and they’ll be under my control, but when this device finishes calibrating completely they won’t have to come in here – everyone in this city, and soon the world will be under my control!”

“Fight it…” Steve whispered.

Tony felt his augmented arm spark, sending a shiver through his body, that spark carried on and shot through Steve’s hand and met with the exact same spark that rose up from his legs. Their eyes opened, both of them, glowing a bright blue for a second as they stood up together, hand in hand, connected by a force from their new limbs.

Suddenly they both felt strong. Their hearts beat in sync, their bodies moving in the exact same pace.

They were united.

“How…?! How are you two standing!? No one can withstand this, no one!” Killgrave tried to use his powers just as he had done before, but it wasn’t effective in the slightest.

In all honestly, they had no idea how they were standing. It was as though they were linked in mind, and soul, and now body. Their willpower had been shared between them, mounting a strong impenetrable defence, even from the Purple Man’s enhanced ability.

The room darkened as the power was sapped out of it. Carol from above along with Thor had managed to dismantle the lightening rod that was providing the power to the building, so now they stood with just Steve and Tony in the dark lab, with their eyes glowing a faint shade of blue.

“W-what!?” Killgrave couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t believe that his perfect plan was falling apart right in front of him.

“It’s over,” they both replied. Tony’s chest powered up once, with Steve stood standing behind him, gathering their power together – joined by the touch of their fingers as Tony shot one last powerful unibeam straight toward Killgrave. The man flew through the air, the wires snapping from the impact, and yet he was still conscious, just barely.

“No… This can’t be happening…” he whispered.

The rage boiled in both Steve and Tony’s chests, for all they had done and for all the pain they had put them through, for their friends and for the home they had lost. They walked, ~~so~~ calmly, toward Killgrave, and with all of the emotion and power they had left in them, Steve drew his left arm back whilst Tony drew his right, mirroring each other before throwing that final punch, and knocking The Purple Man unconscious for the time being. That would give them long enough to tie him up and hand him over to SHIELD.

Their eyes returned to normal, and all they could do is stare at each other in complete amazement, wondering what it was that had caused them to do that. But for that split second, it was as though they could see into each other’s minds, and they could protect one another from their deepest fears and worries – it was just a second, but to them it felt like a lifetime.

Instead of parting ways, Tony just held Steve’s hand tighter and stared at him lovingly, with the utmost affection.

They made their way toward the doors, and cracked them open. With the power gone, the bars were lifted, and both of them had to shield their eyes when they stepped out into the light. The clouds above had faded, and the sun cracked through those that remained, beaming rays of sunlight into the huge building littered with fallen drones.

The team weren’t anywhere to be seen, so they both ran outside and upstairs toward the roof where they were met by everyone. Warm rays dancing along their skin as they stood proudly, holding up their hands and punching the sky as they stood with the rest of their team –

Together they would always be stronger. United… As one.

Clint looked from side to side. “Now, who’s going to clean up this mess?”


	18. Chapter 18

The new HQ for the Avengers was spectacular. It was something that the team had spent months building the tower from the remnants of the mansion and adding so much more.building and perfecting by themselves, building their own new home together. It was a tall, beautiful white tower with the signature ‘A’ branding the front of it near the top. It was so large that it felt as though it were piercing the heavens, but boy, was it a sight. Everyone in the city marvelled at how beautiful the structure was, given that it looked far more modern and sleek than your run of the mill office complex.

It stood proud and tall in the centre of the city where the mansion used to stand as a reminder of hope to all that needed it.

Naturally, the tower was only built after the entire city was cleaned up and restored, and one of the first pieces of mail that Tony had gotten when the tower was finally built was the IOU that he had left the store keeper for those clothes. Needless to say, the store owner got more than they bargained for when a cheque for $1,000 was sent in return.

Every Avenger had their own floor built for them, their own living space for them to come back to after a long, exhausting mission.

JARVIS was restored with a backup disk that Janet had managed to recover when they had returned to the mansion ruins, which was helpful and a relief for the inventor. Everyone seemed to love their new living space, and the tower in itself was one of Tony’s proudest creations. Not to mention he adored his new lab with even more space for all of his suits and creations underground. He did mourn the loss of his old suits and salvaged all he could from the old mansion, but for now he was content with what he had, and there was certainly no looking back.

Steve was getting used to the brand new cybernetic augmentations Tony created for him. The genius was fascinated with the bond that was created between the two by using a single drone’s parts, so instead of destroying it completely, as he had intended, he ended up modifying it and maintaining the core. There was no way he wanted to severe the connection between the two after they had gained something so strong, and become even better than before. Tony built on top of the legs, enhancing their capabilities too, and creating an even stronger bond between them. Besides, Tony wanted a candy apple red arm, and he’d managed to get that, giving Steve a patriotic red and blue paint job. But the best part? The cloaking devices. With a flip of a button the augmentations blended in and appeared as though they were normal limbs, which helped Steve with the adjustment process.

Hammer was sent to prison and Killgrave was taken care of by SHIELD, thrown into the negative zone prison, most likely.

Now, it was time to party.

It was the first official day that all of them had moved in and their floors were furnished, and they had all managed to find time off to celebrate their new home.

Janet was busy taking photos of everyone, ensuring that she was getting the best selfies, even with Bruce who didn’t look too happy to be there. Hawkeye was having fun with Falcon, balancing a beer bottle on top of his head while sitting in front of the TV that took up the space of the entire wall, pressing buttons quickly with their tongues poking out as they fought each other in the latest edition of Mortal Kombat. Clint was having far too much fun trying out the brand new fatalities on Sam, who was getting frustrated and would occasionally nudge Clint to try and throw him off.  Natasha and T’Challa were obviously the cool kids, relaxing on the huge leather couches that Tony had bought for the living room. Vision and Hank were relaxing opposite T’Challa, and Natasha watching Thor down around 20 bottles of beer without so much as batting an eyelid. The music was loud, the atmosphere was happy and everything was perfect. The party lit up even more when their buddies from the Baxter Building popped over to celebrate.

“Tony!” Janet called when Sue, Reed, Ben and Johnny had shown up to join the celebrations. “Tony! Come on, he’s _supposed_ to be the host of this thing, where is he? Some host… Sorry guys, just make yourself at home, I’ll go and find him.” She zoomed off, searching the main living quarters. “Tony..!”

*

“Steve…” Tony whispered, tilting his head back, biting his lower lip. He couldn’t get enough of the feeling that was running through his body when Steve was paying full attention to him like that in such a confined space. The heat of the coat closet they were hiding in just added to the excitement of it all. His muscle rippled and tightens under the firm and sensual hands of the super soldier as they ran up and down Tony’s exposed chest, his red dress shirt hanging wide open.

Steve’s chest hitched with each moan and gasp, the flexing in his arms as he worked against Tony’s grip and a desire to keep still and remain silent, trying to remain as inconspicuous as they were. Tony read  it all as he slipped lower and eventually couldn’t pin Steve’s arms anymore  so he let go in favour of curling his fingers around the lower edge of Steve’s shirt and lifts it only to discard it to the side.

Oh, how it’s a glorious sight.

He’d gotten Steve’s muscular chest all to himself, only lit by the light from his reactor, casting a gentle gleam on the powerful features that were before him. Tony’s parted lips and heavy breath made Steve swallow thickly, only tempting him more as he pressed himself forward and caught those very lips with his own. His eyes closed, pressing Tony against the wall, and his own skin up against Tony’s, with no other sounds being heard asides from the muffled music from the living room, the panting of their hard, quick breaths, and the faint chime of Steve’s dog tags rattling up against Tony’s reactor.

Tony’s fingers carded through Steve’s soft, blonde hair with yearning, trailing down toward the nape of his neck and along. He urged the man closer until their clothed hips pressed together. Even through the fabric he could feel how much Steve wanted this, how much he needed his body completed again.

Tony’s touch was electric, their tongues intertwined and muffling the moans from the both of them.

Steve wanted to touch every part of Tony’s body and couldn’t hold back his hunger, pulling his lips back and trailing down kisses along the edge of his jaw and toward his collar bone, nipping possessively. Tony happily obliged with his head tilting accordingly to allow Steve more room to pleasure him, his hips gently rutting against the other man to show his intent which was met with a happy murmur to Tony’s flesh.

“Steve… Steve…” His name rolled off his tongue, his childhood hero doing this to him was beyond anything he could have ever dreamed of.

Steve’s fingers began trailing the hem of Tony’s designer black pants, unzipping the front, slipping his hand into them without hesitation.

“Steve!” Tony called out with a mix of surprise and pleasure, his lips upturned into an intrigued smirk.

The call attracted attention and then before they knew it the dark closet was flooded with light. Tony groaned and ducked his face into the crook of Steve’s neck.

“O-oh…” Janet said, putting her hand over her mouth for a second and gasping, the others stepping behind her. There was a mixed reaction of sighs, giggles and then there was Johnny taking a picture on his phone and sending it to Peter with the caption: “Told you they were married.”

Steve’s face flushed completely, and he grabbed his shirt from the floor, slipping it on and pulling Tony out too, who decided to opt out of doing his buttons up, quite proudly flaunting the love bites that Steve had left down his neck. They both cleared their throats and fixed their hair, Tony turning to help Steve neaten up his blond mop.

“We were looking all over for you, thought you’d escaped Mr. host…”

Steve’s blush remained, even as he used his hand to hide half of his face subtly. Carol gestured the others to disperse and leave them alone, giving them both a wink before heading off with the others.

“Teenagers…” Bruce muttered as he head back to relax.

“So… Tony, you going to show us around a little?” Reed suggested, trying to change the topic of conversation even though it was difficult to with Tony standing there with his shirt wide open, and Steve with his head turned, hiding his face. It was absolutely amazing how the Captain would change from this confident commanding character to extremely bashful when he was exposed like that. Not that everyone didn’t know already.

Janet pulled Steve and Tony closer together, pushing them lightly toward their new guests.

“Where do you want to start?” Tony asked casually.

“Why don’t we show them the tribute room?” Steve nudged Tony and placed a hand on his shoulder, rubbing it softly.

“Hey, shhh-”

“What’s that?” Ben asked.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry, come on. Let me show you mine and Cap’s floor.”

“You guys have a joint place?” Sue asked. “How domestic…” she teased.

“It’s a start,” Tony finished, ushering the Fantastic Four to show off his and Steve’s personalised floor filled with joy, and unable to explain how happy he was that they had built that room together. That they had built themselves a home again, and it would always be _their_ home.

He was so proud that they had finally done it.

They were finally together.

Who said heroes couldn’t fall in love and live in perfect harmony?

 


End file.
